
Qass BJ"/a.gV 
Book 



"1 



ETHICS 



FOR 



OUR COUNTRY AND THE TIMES. 



- 



s 



By B. P; AYDELOTT, D. D. 




.^ryofCo^ 

1887 



<- CINCINNATI: 
R. W. CARROLL & CO., PUBLISHERS, 

117 West Fourth Street. 

WILLIAM SCOTT, 28 West Fourth Street. 

1866. 

1/ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

B. P. AYDELOTT, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United State9, for the 
Southern District of Ohio. 



STEREOTYPED AT THE 

FRANKLIN TYPE FOUNDRY, 

CINCINNATI, 0. 



CONTENTS. 



Letter to Chief-Justice Chase 11 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory — The importance of ethics, especially in a free 
country — The evils of neglecting ethical teachings, and 
the benefits of obeying these — Milton, Cromwell, Lincoln — 

> The Bible the great book of ethics 17 

CHAPTER II. 
Introductory — Early cultivation of ethics among all na- 
tions — Its absolute necessity to the safety of our Republic — 
Moral dissolution of the South, and its influence upon our 
whole country, rulers and people — A hopeful waking up 
to this subject — The Higher Law — Contempt for it, and the 
punishment thereof. 22 

CHAPTER III. 
God the origin and end of all things — Their being, qualities, 
relations, etc 31 

CHAPTER IV. 
Various views of the foundation of ethics stated — Of these, 
four not tenable; the fifth to be maintained 33 

CHAPTER V. 
Arguments against the first four views, and in favor of the 
fifth 35 

CHAPTER VI. 

Ethical teachings of the Bible — God's nature, will, purpose, 
acts, etc. — His personality, freedom, abhorrence of sin — 

Our obligations to be like him 39 

(v) 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 
False ethical views exposed — Great end of punishment not 
the reformation of the offender nor the good of society — 
God wills that transgressors be punished — Our duty to 
obey him — Mere utility has no moral element in it — The 
danger of false ethical views — Cicero's views here — Serious 
errors of Dr. Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy — Our 
highest good associated with God's glory — Duty of seeking 
them 43 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Ethics of compromises — Evils of compromises — Slowness to 
see our folly here — Meanness and wickedness of sacrificing 
colored patriots to gratify slaveholding rebels — Mr. Sum- 
ner's manly stand 50 

CHAPTER IX. 
Present ethical influence of the loyal North upon the rebell- 
ious South — Duty of the people to instruct their public 
servants to be faithful here — People ahead of their rulers 
in nearly every thing good — Without justice, no true 
peace 55 

CHAPTER X. 
An analysis of moral nature; illustrated in the case of 
crimes committed during intoxication — Insensibility of 
the public here 61 

CHAPTER XI. 
Ethics of capital punishment — Bible teaching, and that of all 
nations — Dangers of a false humanitarianism 66 

CHAPTER XII. 
Ethics of expediency — Perversion of public conscience — 
Miserable consequence of this — The crime of substituting 
expediency for justice — Mr. Hamlin the best safeguard to 
President Lincoln — The President's assassination the fruit 
of expediency 69 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Ethics of the Temperance cause — Touch not, taste not, handle 
not — The price of blood, etc 85 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Ethics of divorce — The Family the foundation of the State — 
Social evils begin in the family — The cure must also there 
begin — Bad children make bad citizens and a declining 
community — Facility of divorce the great cause of all these 
evils— A return to the Scriptural law the only remedy. ..88 
CHAPTER XV. 

Ethics of bad counsels, laws, customs, etc. — Moral agency 
and responsibility not to be put off — Bad laws are not 
law — Benefits of Christian resistance to such — Indebtedness 
to antislavery men — Good results of Sabbath-keeping — 
Cases given, etc 94 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Ethics of casualties, public and private — Men who die in 
war are murdered, and this crime must be accounted for 
in the great day — God knows who are the guilty, and will 
punish such — All casualties should be judicially looked 

into 102 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Ethical relations of citizens to the Government — Wrong 
views very prevalent — Government our greatest earthly 
benefit — Its cheapness, etc. — Duty of liberally supporting 
the Government; especially in its endeavors to discharge 
our obligations to its soldiers, public creditors, etc 106 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Ethics of suffrage — Its constitutional and moral right — It 
ought to be universal — The people sovereign, and hence 
must govern — Early and continued attempts of slave- 
holders to limit suffrage — The ballot the grand conservator 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

of freedom — All governments hitherto composite— Continual 
tendency to pure Democracy — How prepare the public mind 
for this — Christianity the grand means of extending and 
upholding free institutions — Terrible evils of the sham 
Democracy — Why the Government may, in some cases, 
hinder the exercise of the right of suffrage — How treat 
foreigners here — How females, the most of whom are better 
qualified to vote than many who now hold the ballot — The 
right of freedmen to vote — Their superiority here over the 
great mass of the whites at the South — Folly and danger 
of denying universal suffrage Ill 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Ethics of sovereignty — No form of government necessarily 
atheistic — Our Constitution democratic — A sham Democ- 
racy, the vile spawn of slaveholding, has brought reproach 
upon a true Democracy, etc... 133 

CHAPTER XX. 

Ethics of popular education — Importance of educating the 
sovereign people — Much done already in the free States, 
but a great deal more to be accomplished — How to improve 
and extend common schools — Christianity must run through 
and vitalize this reat work 136 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Ethical claims on the body politic — Frightful evils of de- 
fective legislation — Lord Bacon's " wild justice " — The body 
politic mainly responsible here — Why we have so long been 
without certain righteous laws — Fraudulent transfer of 
property, breach of trust, seduction, etc. — Perjury of courts, 
juries, etc., the only remedy for these evils 141 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Ethical claims upon the Church — Her solemn responsibility — 
She is especially intrusted with the ethical instruction of 



CONTENTS. IX 

all classes — Her unfaithfulness here, especially in the 
case of slavery — Most painful but instructive facts — Let 
the Church come manfully up to duty, and so endeavor to 
make some amends for past unfaithfulness — The hypocrisy 
of the cry, "Politics in the pulpit ! — The perils of reconstruc- 
tion great, etc 146 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Ethical relations of ministers to war — Duties of ministers 
in a righteous "war; their importance, etc. — The minister 
stands at the fountain-head of a nation's moral and spirit- 
ual life — If faithful in their peculiar position, ministers 
may do more to enlighten, invigorate, and sustain the 
people, and so contribute to success in a righteous war, than 
the best general, statesman, etc. — Most congregations, even 
at much sacrifice, showed more wisdom than the Adminis- 
tration — Policy of compelling ministers to do military duty, 
etc. — Right Reverend General Polk — Bishop Meade's gentle 
but solemn rebuke, etc 156 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Ethics of retributive justice or vengeance — Great and most 

dangerous errors here — Government, God's vicegerent to 

execute justice — Terrible result of the impunity of crime — 

The exceeding guilt of sparing the guilty 163 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Ethics of representation — A difference of views, etc. — All who 
hold office are agents of the people, and hence subject to the 
law of agency — The ignominy of President Tyler a warn- 
ing to all apostate Presidents — No excuse for such unfaith- 
ful men * 167 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Ethics of government — All public officers are servants of the 
sovereign people, and ought to obey the people or resign — 



X CONTENTS. 

Not to do this, proves such men void of principle — Allow- 
ance to be made for hesitancy in rulers, as well as for their 
superior opportunities of knowledge — The apparent ineffi- 
ciency of Mr. Lincoln's Administration — A letter on thia 
subject — Superior sagacity and energy of the people — Thf 
Administration at last compelled, by the popular voic 
to proclaim emancipation and call colored citizens to the 
war — The long-predicted and happy results of this right- 
eous measure — The unfaithfulness of the Government at thia 
moment to its responsibilities — Terrible results of this at 
the South — Intemperance produces much of these evils- 
Let us the more steadily look to God for deliverance... 172 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Ethics of electors — Availability the common ground on wh*vQ 
candidates are selected — But good morals and competency 
are chiefly to be regarded — Corrupting consequences of thia 
view of availability as the chief thing — A bad man never can be 
a good officer — Men corrupted by intemperance, slaveholding, 
or any immoral practice, are not fit for office — The murder 
of Mr. Lincoln 183 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

Present ethical relations of the free loyal States to the late 
slaveholding rebellious States — Two important facts here — 
Duty of the North to labor liberally and earnestly to edu- 
cate and evangelize the South, white and colored — In this 
way the North may make some amends for past unfaithful- 
ness — Without this true Christian foundation- work, no plan 
of reconstruction can be successful 188 

CHAPTER XXIX 

Ethics of pardon — Pardoning power must be lodged some- 
where in every government — No one can be pardoned who 
has not been legally condemned — How the amnesties ex- 



CONTENTS. X 

tended to rebels by the President are to be regarded — Every 
such offender still liable to be tried for treason before the 
civil courts — Danger of losing sight of this fact 190 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Ethics of consequences — Most intimate relation between ethics 
and truth — Truth defined — Ethical tendency to follow out 
every truth to all its logical consequences : first, our late 
civil war was inevitable ; second, universal suffrage must, 
erelong, be established among us, and brought to bear di- 
rectly upon every office ; third, freedom of intercourse be- 
tween us and all other nations must be brought about at 
the earliest day practicable ; fourth, it is morally certain that 
Christianity will finally prevail over the whole earth... 193 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Ethical view of our country's future — Unparalleled greatness 
before us — An open Bible and a free Christianity ours — the 
blessing of these — Church establishments paralyzing, cor- 
rupting — Benign influence of dissent— Wesley, Whitfield, 
etc.; their bitter persecution — 2. Our people sovereign — 
Sovereignty in other countries; France, Russia, etc. — The 
whole people more intelligent, wise, powerful than any one 
man, or select number of men — The amazement and fear 
of other governments at every view^of this Republic, etc. — 
3. The last few years made us to know ourselves, and made 
the nation to know, also, how great is our future — 4. This 
country the grand depository of the rights and destiny of 
other nations — How responsible our trust — Evils among us ; 
how these will be overcome, etc 207 



SALMON P. CHASE, 



CHIEF-JUSTICE OP THE UNITED STATES: 

Dear Sir — Your course generally, as a public man, has 
shown the deep interest you feel on the subject presented 
in the following volume. 

I say this, not from a distant view, but from personal 
intercourse extending over nearly half of my long life, 
and more than half of yours, as fellow-members of con- 
vention, as officers of college, as pastor and parishioner, 
and in the friendly greetings of every-day life. 

Your words, your actions, have ever expressed a pro- 
found regard for a true ethics. It was this which led 
you, (UubtUss, at much sacrifice, personal and political, 
to "fee for them that are in bonds, as bound with them." 
And this noble stand you took when it cost something to 
De an antislavery man. And it is this deep moral con- 
.ction, I doubt not, which led you to sympathize with 

(xiii) 



XIV DEDICATION. 

the mass of the people, and boldly advocate the right and 
the safety of universal suffrage. 

The one great blessing has already, in the wonderful 
workings of a good Providence, been granted to us — the 
abolition of slavery. The other — universal suffrage — is 
advancing with avalanche speed, and must shortly be ours, 
as I trust, by the peaceful progress of light and good feel- 
ing; but if not, it must come by great, perhaps greater 
and more terrific upheavings than accompanied the birth 
of universal emancipation. Even I scarcely despair of 
seeing that happy day. You, as some fifteen years behind 
me, may much more confidently anticipate the sublime 
spectacle of a people universally free and politically equal 
as citizens of a truly Christian republic. 

I need not say how fruitful in beneficent results such 
an era would be. What a glorious prospect of national 
power, virtue, and happiness would it open before us! 
Such a people could not but become the cheerfully-ac- 
knowledged leaders and benefactors of the whole human 
family. This, I doubt not, is our future. 

But, to prepare us for so great a work, so high an 
honor, as enlightened, whole-hearted laborers for the 
world's regeneration, we may yet need much chastening. 
If so, the God of providence and grace will assuredly lead 
us into the furnace, and consume our dross and brighten 
our gold, and so prepare us as " workers together with 
him" for the advent of the latter-day glory! To this 
happy day of earth's blessed and holy liberty not only the 



DEDICATION. XV 

thoughtful and hopeful men of every age, but universal 
human nature, and even creation itself, have looked for- 
ward, "in hope of deliverance from the bondage of cor- 
ruption into glorious liberty." (Rom. viii : 21.) 

You will perceive that in the following ethical discus- 
sion I have spoken very plainly and frankly, and, I trust, 
kindly. He who would not or could not do this ought to 
be silent. Does not much of Christian and patriotic bold- 
ness become us all in this day of our country's solemn 
crisis ? 

I have addressed this volume to you, not from the ex- 
pectation that you will concur in every particular judg- 
ment advanced, but with the pleasing assurance that the 
great ethical truths it advocates will meet a cordial re- 
sponse in your bosom. Has it not been the labor of your 
life to extend them? And is not this the one great secret 
of your distinguished success? And I will here add, that 
in all I have met with in the writings of the great fathers 
of our country — Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jay, 
etc. — I know of no utterance more replete with the light 
and the benevolence of a true ethics than is contained in 
a single sentence of one of your published letters during 
the late rebellion — a letter characterized by your usual 
clearness, simplicity, and vigor of style: "We can not afford 
to wrong any class of our people. One poor man, colored 
though he may be, with God on his side, is stronger against 
us than the hosts of the rebellion. 1 ' 

That God may long spare you for the duties of your 



XVI DEDICATION. 

elevated and most important position, and continually 
guide and uphold you in them ; and that you may, at last, 
through the riches of redeeming blood and grace, hear the 
blessed welcome from the lips of our God — our Savior and 
Judge — "Well done, good and faithful servant." This 
is the earnest prayer of your old friend and servant 

in the Gospel, 

B. P. Aydelott. 



ETHICS 

FOB 

OUR COUNTRY AND THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER I. 

IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS. — INTRODUCTORY. 

The subjects discussed in the following pages 
concern every citizen, particularly in a free 
country ; and they ought to command the es- 
pecial attention of statesmen and all in au- 
thority, of divines and professional men, and 
of studious persons generally. 

So long as it is true that educated mind 
governs the world; and it will hold true so 
long as the world stands; they who aspire to 
rule ought to be well grounded in a true 
ethics — its evidences, its principles, and its 
practical bearings. 

It may be safely asserted that almost no great 
calamity has ever befallen any nation or peo- 
ple that did not grow out of ignorance here, 
2 (17) 



18 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

or, what is still worse, sinning against the light. 
And how often have statesmen of unquestioned 
ability and attainments miserably wrecked their 
reputations and their most carefully-devised 
measures either by a want of ethical knowledge, 
or contempt for it. 

And, on the other hand, was it not their 
love of a sound morality, and their generally 
steadfast adherence to it, that made Milton, 
the poet, and Cromwell, the farmer, and Lin- 
coln, the village attorney, so pre-eminent as 
political leaders and benefactors of their coun- 
try? Cromwell, with his usual clear vision, 
foresaw all this. Hence, amid the darkest 
night of calumny and opposition, he could 
calmly predict the coming of that day when 
his character would appear in its true light. 
"J know that God has been above all report, and 
will, in his own time, vindicate me" And that 
day has come when Cromwell, so long mis- 
represented and misunderstood, stands forth, by 
the world's almost unanimous verdict, Eng- 
land's greatest, wisest, noblest ruler. And no 
one doubts of our « Martyr-President " that it 
was his honesty which mainly made him what 
he was— purged his mental eye, strengthened 
his arm, and enabled him to stand up against 
the embattled hosts of a most mad and cruel 



THE IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS. 19 

rebellion, and above all, gave him firmness to 
resist what he believed the mistaken counsel of 
his most tried friends. 

But, it may be asked, how shall we come at 
a true ethics ? The world has almost from the 
beginning been greatly divided here, and mul- 
titudes have hitherto wandered, and do yet 
wander, in error. What has caused this? and 
how may we escape it ? 

We answer, the word of God has never yet 
had its rightful position of pre-eminence in 
these discussions. In some of the moral sci- 
ences it has been kept completely out of view, 
and in others only partially deferred to. 

In psychology, for example, or the philoso- 
phy of the human mind, do not nearly all the 
great authors, in the very face of Scripture tes- 
timony, assume throughout that the mind is in 
its normal state? And therefore they make no 
allowance whatever for the disturbing influence 
of evil on the faculties, and hence they frer 
quently flounder in the dark, and too often are 
betrayed into the grossest errors. And in moral 
and political philosopy, also, or ethics strictly 
so called, how little has as yet been made of 
Bible authority. Hence the many false and 
fatal theories that have been put forth, and are 
continually broached at this day. 



20 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

But in opposition to all this, we venture to 
say that the Bible is the very best text-book 
in the philosophy of the human mind, in eth- 
ics or moral and political philosophy, and in 
the moral sciences generally. 

With the Bible in our hands we can easily 
see through almost every error, and solve most 
of the dark questions that metaphysicians have 
started; and with the Bible in our hands we 
may readily brush away the cunningly-woven 
webs of Paley's " Falsehoods not Criminal." 

And what is still more worthy of remark, 
humbling as it is to our pride, that while we 
are full of self-gratulation, on account of our 
superior knowledge of the great principles of 
liberty, and our possession of the freest political 
institutions in the world, we may see, if we 
choose, the only perfect model of a free gov- 
ernment — a true democracy — presented on the 
pages of the Bible more than thirty centuries 
since, in the deserts of Arabia, by the great 
Hebrew Law-giver, Moses, or rather through 
him, by the God and Father of all mankind. 

Just so far as our Constitution has departed 
from this divine pattern is it defective; and 
for these shortcomings and positive errors are 
.we now paying, and we have been paying 
through all our past history, the righteous pen- 



THE IMPORTANCE OP ETHICS. 21 

alty. And it is for us now, in this the most 
solemn crisis of our country, to avert these 
evils from our posterity, and open before them 
a brighter prospect than we inherited from our 
fathers, of national power, blessedness and 
glory, by honestly looking back in our legisla- 
tion to the divine rule, the only true ethics, and 
so laying the foundation of our reconstructed 
Government in righteousness. Will we do this ? 
Who can doubt it? Let us "thank God and 
take courage." Are not the clouds clearing 
away and the skies brightening over us? The 
present Congress has so far done nobly. God 
give them wisdom and firmness to complete 
the great work ! How enviable their position 
of usefulness and influence. How largely will 
they render a grateful people their debtors, 
and with what rich historic honors will their 
names go down to the latest posterity, if they 
continue faithful to their high trust. 

We would contribute our mite to this great 
result, and therefore do we solicit the reader's 
serious, candid attention to the following chap- 
ters. 



22 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER II. 

EABLY CULTIVATION OP ETHICS — INTRODUCTORY. 

Even in the earliest ages of the world to 
which our history of the moral sciences extends, 
many of the questions brought forward in the 
following pages, engaged the attention of phi- 
losophers and thinking men. They were ably 
discussed in the different schools; they gave 
rise to great diversity of sentiment ; they were 
transmitted to succeeding ages, and they live 
to this day. And although, as might be ex- 
pected, much light has been shed upon them, 
they still are by no means settled; at least 
great differences of views exist in regard to 
many of them. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that such ques- 
tions must be very difficult and profound, and 
that their great importance must have been 
generally felt. Their whole history, and that 
of all nations and people show this. Our own 
country also, as every thoughtful observer must 
be sensible, gives deeply interesting proofs of 



EARLY CULTIVATION OF ETHICS. 23 

the same fact. There is, perhaps, not one of 
these questions, on which there are not oppo- 
site views embraced among us ; and errors on 
some of them have become so manifest and 
wide-spread as to occasion serious alarm in 
many reflecting minds. 

Indeed, these questions meet us every- where, 
and touch our interests at all points. They 
concern the pulpit and every department of 
government, legislative, judiciary, and execu- 
tive ; they mainly control the morals and poli- 
tics of the people. In a word, nothing is so 
fundamental and all-embracing as ethics. 

With truth generally settled and seen by us 
here, our country is safe. But if such errors 
as have been developed and extended among 
us for some years past are not speedily and 
fairly met and exposed, our free institutions 

CAN NOT LAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LONGER. We 

venture this assertion without the least misgiv- 
ing, because we assuredly believe that it is 
true, not only of individuals, but of communi- 
ties also — for what are these but aggregates 
of individuals ? — that " whatsoever a man sow- 
eth that shall he also reap." 

We have just passed through the terrible 
war of secession, and only been saved "by the 
skin of our teeth." But have we not now a 



24 ETHICS FOR TEE TIMES. 

vastly more alarming struggle before us ? Have 
we not proofs, in frightful abundance, that we 
are threatened, as a people, at this moment, 
with a general moral dissolution? In com- 
parison with such a calamity, secession is but 
a flea-bite. 

At the South this moral dissolution was far 
advanced years since, and it was rapidly ma- 
turing at the breaking out of the rebellion. 
What but such a general moral dissolution 
could have emboldened their Jeff*. Davises and 
Masons to stand up with brazen fronts and 
pour out their treason even on the floor of the 
Senate-chamber of the United States? And 
what but such a moral dissolution running 
through the whole popular heart of the South 
could have enabled these perjured traitors to 
drive the people — against, in many cases, their 
own votes — like so many unthinking, ferocious 
brutes into a bloody war against their country ? 
And — to name no more — what but this state 
of utter moral dissolution in southern society 
could have produced such scenes as were daily 
witnessed among our imprisoned soldiers at 
Belle Island, at Salisbury and at Anderson- 
ville — scenes whose cool, demoniacal atrocity 
make even Sepoy savages apostles of humanity? 

And to come still nearer home, is it not daily 



EARLY CULTIVATION OF ETHICS. 25 

becoming more and more difficult here at 
the North to carry out, or even sustain, some 
of the plainest and most important of God's 
laws — laws sanctioned, too, by our own legis- 
lation, and laws, till within a few years past, 
universally regarded and upheld ? 

Has it not been, for example, next to im- 
possible to convict and capitally punish even 
the most atrocious murderer ? Indeed, one or 
two States have already gone so far as to re- 
peal such punishment, thus assuming to be 
wiser and more humane than the righteous 
Sovereign of the universe; that they know bet- 
ter than he does what is the just penalty of 
blood guiltiness, and what would best protect 
the lives of individuals and guard the general 
good. 

And signs inviting to gambling, in the very 
teeth of the laws, meet us in every street, and 
drunkenness is seen reeling all over the land, 
and, what is still worse, this villainy of intem- 
perance is known to destroy annually millions 
of dollars' worth of property and thousands of 
lives by what is most falsely called " Horrible 
Accidents." 

And to such a height has this deluge of 
shameless profligacy reached, that we now see 
men in the lofty places of the nation coming 



26 ETHICS FOE, THE TIMES. 

down and pouring out harangues so low and 
incendiary to disloyal rabbles, and putting 
forth manifestoes embodying such notorious 
misrepresentations, as would make quite re- 
spectable the vilest sans-culotte of the French 
revolution. 

After the foregoing was written, there ap- 
peared in the Cincinnati Gazette of August 1, 
1866, a letter from its Washington correspondent, 
H. Y. £L B., generally understood to be the gal- 
lant and distinguished General Boynton, in 
which a scene is reported most painfully ex- 
emplifying the danger of a moral dissolution 
pervading the land. We extract the passage: 

" After having held and exercised the office 
of Judge in the Confederacy, and having sworn 
to support the Confederate Government, he 
swore before the assembled Senate, among 
other things, that he had 'never sought, or 
accepted, or attempted to exercise the functions 
of any office whatever, under any authority, or 
pretended authority, in hostility to the United 
States;' and with the former oath admitted, 
and the latter one on his lips, he took his seat 
as a Senator." 

Taking this to be a correct report, and we 
see no reason to doubt it, could there be a 
more palpable instance of flagrant perjury in 



EARLY CULTIVATION OF ETHICS. 27 

high places, and of a shameless complicity in 
it by those who sustained the act? A test oath, 
carefully framed, to prevent traitors from get- 
ting scats in the national legislature, had been 
passed into law just before ; but this law was 
now trampled under foot, and the President's 
son-in-law, Mr. Patterson, late a Judge under 
the rebel government, was admitted to a seat 
in the Senate of the United States. 

"Will the Grand Jury of the District of Co- 
lumbia present this case ? Do the laws of the 
District provide for the trial and the punish- 
ment of such offenders? If they do not, they 
must be far below the standard even of the 
most moderate ethical system. Well might 
Trumbull, and Wade, and Shellabarger, etc., 
raise the voice of solemn remonstrance and 
warning against such a shameful and danger- 
ous procedure. What further evidence need 
we of a most disastrous moral dissolution 
threatening our beloved country? 

What are w r e coming to ? What are we 
coming to ? Is not this w r orse than secession? 
Is it not w r ide-spread, overwhelming evidence 
of moral dissolution — such a breaking up of 
"fountains of the great deep" as threatens 
shipwreck to all w T e hold sacred and dear? 
Hence, the hearts of very many patriots and 



28 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

thinking men are every-where filled with ap- 
prehensions of what is coming upon the nation. 
But we hope better things. We think we 
see bright stars, not a few, shedding light over 
the prospect before us. Good citizens, and 
Christian men, and patriotic statesmen, in all 
parts of the land, give hopeful evidence of a 
waking up to these " signs of the times." 
They have begun to look the crisis full in the 
face, and with brave hearts and strong hands 
are girding themselves up for duty and for 
danger. They seem to say, " Our country 

SHALL AND WILL BE SAVED ! " 

But to do this great work we must look back 
to old foundation principles. We must study 
these, and determine, God blessing us, to stand 
upon them and to stand by them. The law 
of God, and the laws of our country, also, so 
far as these are in accordance with God's law, 
we trust will yet stand forth vindicated, and, 
with all their power to benefit and to bless, be 
faithfully carried out. 

Only in this way will popular morals — the 
very foundation of our country's liberties — be 
lifted up and reinvigorated, so as to give us, 
in the time to come, none but public men 
worthy of such a people. 

Then shall we no more hear our statesmen 



EARLY CULTIVATION OF ETHICS. 29 

gravely discussing mere policies and expedients, 
and the embodiment of these in deceitful com- 
promises, framed to favor cunning cliques and 
selfish aristocracies, while they cruelly oppress 
multitudes. Do not such crafty, silly states- 
men forget — if, indeed, many of them ever 
knew — that it is principle, and not policy — ■ 
principle manfully carried out — which alone 
will save our country? So sure as God reigns, 
"Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a re- 
proach to any people." Does not a true ethics 
lie at the foundation of all true statesman- 
ship? and must not mere policy, apart from a 
true ethics, ultimately ruin a nation? 

But, alas ! how short the time — thank God, 
however, we have almost got safely through it — 
how short the time when the Higher Law, 
that is, God's law, was spoken of with the 
most malignant scorn, even in the Senate- 
chamber of the United States. Might not the 
eye of faith have seen, at that moment of im- 
pious triumph, a divine hand put forth, and 
writing on the wall, "Mene, mene, tekel!" — 
"Thou art weighed in the balances and found 
wanting; the dominion has passed from thee !" 
(Daniel v: 26-27.) And the then dominant 
party suddenly rotted down and has perished 
in its own corruption. Thankful, thrice thank- 



30 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

ful should we be to Almighty God, that, in his 
merciful providence, we, as a nation, have been 
relieved from slavery and its hideous, atheistic 
outgrowth — a sham Democracy! 

It is because we see evidences of such a 
national revival of truth and moral principle 
among us, that we feel assured of the final 
salvation of our beloved country. 

The one design of the following chapters is 
to clear up, and vindicate, and extend those 
great fundamental ethical principles, which 
alone can make popular morals and religion 
and government what they ought to be; such 
as shall assuredly raise the nations of the earth 
to that exalted position of wisdom, virtue, hap- 
piness, and glory to which a favoring Provi- 
dence and the gospel of the grace of God do 
so loudly and lovingly call them. 



81 



CHAPTER III. 

GOD, THE ORIGIN AND END OF ALL THINGS. 

" Op him, and through him, and to him are 
all things ; to whom be glory forever. Amen." 
(Rom. xi : 36.) 

What is the teaching of inspiration here? 
Is it not plainly that 

God is the source of all things ; that is, all 
other beings come into existence of or from 
him, and they all derive their several natures 
or modes of existence from him? 

And, farther, through him they all continue 
in being; that is, on him are they wholly de- 
pendent, so that were he to withdraw for a 
single moment his supporting hand, they would 
all instantly vanish, or sink into nonentity, or 
their original nothingness? 

And, finally, to manifest his being, counsels, 
and perfections, he called all things into exist- 
ence, and upholds them in being, and continu- 
ally orders and overrules every event, from the 
greatest to the most minute. In a word, God 
is the sole Creator, Preserver, and Universal 



32 ETHICS FOR TIIE TIMES. 

Sovereign, and his glory is the final or grand 
end of creation and providence. 

This statement, interpreted in its widest, 
proper sense, is, we believe, in accordance with 
the teachings of inspiration. " Of him, and 
through him, and to him are all things; to 
whom be glory forever. Amen." 

And be it here remarked that this passage 
is only a brief but very clear and comprehen- 
sive summary of what is taught us on this 
most important subject in various other parts 
of the Bible. All the multitudinous phases 
of this great truth, which shine out as so many 
stars in the Holy Scriptures, are here condensed 
into one most luminous utterance, as sublime 
and wonderful as it is simple. 



VARIOUS ETHICAL VIEWS. 33 



CHAPTER IV. 

VARIOUS ETHICAL VIEWS STATED. 

Now, a profound question here presents itself 
to us — a question that has engaged the atten- 
tion of philosophers, and religious men, and 
reflecting persons in all ages. It is this : Is 
there a moral system, or a fitness of things, or 
a great law "of rectitude, or a moral necessity, 
each immutable and eternal, and each apart 
from and independent of God, but according to 
which he always determines and acts, and ever 
must determine and act ? so that Gocl, as well 
as all his moral creatures, are alike obligated 
to this system or fitness of things, or great law 
of rectitude, or moral necessity? 

One class of thinkers — and a very numerous 
and respectable class, too — assert that there is 
such a moral system, or fitness of things, or 
law of rectitude, or moral necessity, immutable 
and eternal, and binding alike upon the Crea- 
tor and all moral creatures. Hence they hold 
that God always purposes and acts in accord- 
ance with this immutable and eternal system, 
3 



34 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

or fitness of things, or great law of rectitude, 
or moral necessity, and that it can not be other- 
wise. 

The arguments for each of these views are 
very many and apparently strong; so much so 
that, without God's revealed truth in our hands, 
we see not how they could be satisfactorily met 
to some minds. 

Another class of thinkers maintain that not 
only all creatures, material and spiritual, and 
others, too — if there are such — together with 
their several natures or modes of existence, are 
derived from God, and are continually upheld 
and governed b} r him; but likewise that all 
distinctions of things, or their different char- 
acters, qualities, and properties, and all their 
relations, also, moral as well as physical, have 
their origin and end in God. 

This last view we believe, on rational grounds, 
to be the true one, and that it is taught us also 
in the verse which introduces our third chap- 
ter, and in many other parts of the sacred 
Scriptures. And we now proceed to give some 
reasons for our judgment. 



ARGUMENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE FIRST FOUR OF ABOVE 
MENTIONED VIEWS AND IN FAVOR OF THE LAST. 

1. If there is a moral system, immutable and 
eternal, apart from God and independent of 
him, but binding alike upon all moral beings, 
then there must be another God — were this 
possible — because such a system supposes an 
intelligent, designing author, and this author 
must necessarily be supreme, and, therefore, the 
only true God. 

2. If there is an immutable and eternal fit- 
ness of things, apart from God and indepen- 
dent of him, but to which he must conform, 
this fitness of things must have had a contriver 
and sustainer, who himself must be intelligent 
and supreme, and, therefore, God. 

3. If there be a great law, or an immutable 
and eternal rule of rectitude, apart from and 
independent of God, but in harmony with 
which all the divine counsels and doings must 



36 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

be framed, such a law demands a legislator, 
and he must be the only true God, because 
supreme over all. And, lastly 

4. If it be an immutable and eternal neces- 
sity, which alike enfolds God and all his coun- 
sels and doings, and all his moral creatures 
also, this moral necessity or fate, call it which 
we may, must have one who spoke it into 
existence ( Fatum, that is, something spoken ) ; 
that is, an arbitrator or author, and this arbi- 
trator is Lord over all, verily and truly God. 

Whichever, then, of these views we adopt, it 
must lead us, if logically followed up, to reject 
the God revealed in the Bible, and to substi- 
tute a God of our own fancy for him — either 
the author of the moral system, or the con- 
triver of the fitness of things, or the legislator 
of the great rule of rectitude, or the arbitrator 
of moral necessity. One of these do we really 
make God, the Almighty, universal, supreme 
Sovereign. 

But such views, the whole history of the 
world has shown, tend to Atheism, and must 
lead many down this fearful abyss. We can 
not persuade men to hold to an abstract God, 
a mere idea formed by the human mind. They 
must have the God of Revelation, or travel 
through every grade of superstition, till they 



ARGUMENTS. 37 

come, sooner or later, to the very sum and 
grand climax of all superstition — Atheism.* 

* There is, indeed, a sense in which we may properly use 
any of the above statements of Ethical Theories, and in this 
sense, doubtless, many good men have used them, and still 
do. If, for example, by the phrases Moral System, Moral 
Fitness, Great Law of Rectitude, Moral Necessity; is meant 
simply a moral system, or fitness of things, or law of recti- 
tude, or moral necessity, ordained of God and dependent 
upon him, immutable and eternal as his own nature, and 
expressing his sovereign rule to all his moral creatures, and 
so unchangeably and supremely binding upon them, if this 
be meant, it expresses a great truth. To such a use of either 
of these phrases we, therefore, can have no objection. 

There undoubtedly is such a system, or fitness of things, 
or law of rectitude, or moral necessity; but these are all 
divine in their origin, existence, operation and end. They all 
are " of God, and through him and to him." (Rom. xi: 86.) 
His nature is their sole great moral support and issue. But 
the too common use of these terms, and the whole history of 
ethics, have shown a continual tendency to depart from this 
true and safe sense, and put such a construction upon them 
as clearly tends to banish the recognition of God's govern- 
ment, and, indeed, the very idea of the true God. We can not, 
therefore, but regard them as dangerous expressions. 

Just as (to illustrate our meaning) in Natural Philosophy, 
or the Physical sciences, we have no objection to the terms 
Powers of Nature, Natural Laws, Correlation and Conserva- 
tion of Forces, etc., if thereby we are to understand the 
actings out, or rather the modes of the acting out, of the 
Divine Will in the material world; whose source, support, 
and end are all in the Divine Will, and entirely dependent 
upon it for continuance and direction. This is a Theislic 



38 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

sense, and we suppose that many physicists and students of 
natural philosophy thus use these phrases. 

But very different are the views of others, and their employ- 
ment of these terms. In the positive philosophy put forth in 
France by M. Auguste Comte, and advocated by many in 
other countries, these phrases are intended to express some- 
thing wholly apart from God, and independent of him. And 
still worse, they are clearly designed to shut out all idea of 
God, and to teach the impossibility of our ever coming to any 
knowledge of Godj or of any thing above or beside the mate- 
rial world. In a word, they are designed to teach and estab- 
lish a system of blank Atheism. This, in fact, and to strip 
away all devices, — this is the position of Comte, and the 
English Comte, John Stuart Mill. 

Such, then, being the tendency of the use of the aforemen- 
tioned terms in ethics and the natural Sciences — so darkening, 
demoralizing, and dangerous to all our interests, for time and 
eternity---it behooves us to be very careful not to be led astray 
by the improper use of them, daily met with even in authors 
otherwise very instructive and excellent. And especially 
does it behoove us to be very careful ourselves when we use 
these terms, manifestly to employ them only in the theistic or 
truly ethical sense. 



ETHICAL TEACHINGS OE THE BIBLE. 30 



CHAPTER VI. 

ETHICAL TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE. 

In opposition to the foregoing views, we 
hold, and we believe the Scriptures teach, 

1. That God is not only the Creator, Upholder 
and Supreme Sovereign of all things, but that 
from him proceed all their relations and all 
distinctions of things, and all possibility of 
these distinctions. (Rom. xi: 36.) 

2. That God's character and will being 
simply the expressions of his nature, are what 
they are, just because he is what he is. " I 
am that I am." (Exod. ii : 14.) 

3. That as God's nature is eternally and un- 
changeably the same, so his character and will 
are eternally and immutably the same. He is 
God from everlasting to everlasting, without 
any variableness or shadow of turning. "I 
am the Lord, I change not." (Ps. xc : 11; 
James i : 17 ; Malachi iii : 6.) 

4. That God's will and acts have their 
origin and end simply in his own nature, and 
not in view of any system or fitness of things, 



40 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

or law of rectitude, or moral necessity, apart 
from and independent of him, and by which 
he is bound or in any way controlled or influ- 
enced. (Dan. iv : 35.) 

5. That God always purposes and does what 
is good, because, as his nature is perfectly good, 
and only good, and will be forever good, so 
his will must forever be absolutely, that is, per- 
fectly, good. (Ps. xxv : 8 ; James i : 17.) 

But it may be said, if this be so, if God's 
will is eternal and unchangeable, then both he 
and we are forever bound up in a chain of im- 
mutable and eternal necessity or fate. 

Not so. We solemnly, and again and again 
do we solemnly, protest against this conclusion 
as unwarranted, absurd, and impious. (Rom. 
ix: 19-21.) Fate is unintelligent, brute force, 
a hideous abstraction, a monster, the crea- 
tion of a superstitious fancy. But God is a 
reality, a person, and therefore a moral being, 
and therefore free. He is the almighty, omnis- 
cient, infinitely wise, good, and righteous Cre- 
ator, Upholder, and Governor of all things. 

We say God is free, because take away free- 
dom, and you destroy moral agency ; and take 
away moral agency, and you destroy personal- 
ity; and take away personality, and moral 
purposes and moral acts are impossible. Man, 



ETHICAL TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE. 41 

for example, in distinction from the brute, is a 
person, because a moral agent, and a moral 
agent because free, lie is always addressed 
and treated as such by the Bible and all human 
laws, and hence most reasonably and right- 
eously held responsible for all his purposes and 
conduct, good and evil. 

But if God, the God of the Bible, be the 
almighty, omniscient, infinitely-wise, good, and 
righteous Creator, Upholder and Preserver 
of all things, immutable, eternal, and supreme, 
then, manifestly, it shall ever be " well with 
the righteous," and " it shall ever be ill with 
the wicked." (Isaiah iii : 10, 11.) We may 
be certain, also, that " all things work together | 
for good to them who love God." (Rom. viii:J 
28.) And " nothing," we arc assured, " can \ 
harm those who are followers of that which isy 
good." (IPet. iii: 13.) 

What good man does not rejoice that God 
is such a sovereign, and feel it his highest 
privilege, honor, and happiness to be under his 
government and obey his will? (Ps. xcvii : 1.) 

Only the wicked hate God, and desire to 
cast off his rule. Unbiased reason always} 
testifies for God. (Rom. i : 19, 20.) Hence it 
is written, " The fool," that is, the wicked man, 
"hath said in his heart" mark, it is not in his 



42 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

head, for no one ever yet has been fool enough 
for that, but " in his heart, the fool hath said 
there is no God;" and the reason why, the in- 
spired writer immediately adds, " They are 
corrupt, they have done abominable works." 
(Ps. xiv : 1.) A corrupt heart is the root of all 
atheism. 

6. Sixthly and lastly, we maintain that if 
God's nature, and that expression of it w T hich 
constitutes his law, are immutably and eternally 
holy, just, and good, it follows that sin, or moral 
evil, must ever be abhorrent in the divine sight, 
and that the law must condemn it. And if w r e 
ourselves are upright — that is, if our moral na- 
ture is in harmony with the nature and law 
of God — we also shall so regard sin, and hence 
shun it ourselves, and feel, too, that not duly 
to punish it in others when we have the au- 
thority is itself a great sin. (Jer. xliv: 4; 1 
Pet. i": 15, 16 ; Prov. xvii : 15.) 



FALSE VIEWS STATED AND EXPOSED. 43 



CHAPTER VII. 

CERTAIN FALSE VIEWS STATED AND EXPOSED. 

If the foregoing argument be sound, we may 
readily see that all systems or views which 
teach that the great object of punishment is 
the reformation of the offender, or the good of 
society, or both, must be radically false and mis- 
chievous. For even where we can see no 
prospect of such reformations or social good, 
we are still bound by our allegiance to God 
and the obligations of his law to inflict punish- 
ment upon evil-doers. In other words, sin, or 
moral evil, is to be punished, because God's 
holy nature and his holy law demand this; 
and to disregard, in such a case, obedience to 
God, is itself a great sin. The ruler who does 
it, incurs guilt, and if the community uphold 
him they also become involved in the guilt. 
Hence a whole nation or people has often be- 
come guilty and been punished, in the course 
of a righteous providence, because of guilt thus 
incurred. 

The history of the world, secular and sacred, 



44 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

is full of solemn instruction here. What ter- 
rible retributions, for example, have been vis- 
ited upon us within the last few years, and how 
still sadder the prospect, it may be, yet before 
us, on account of our complicity, as a people, 
in the cruel plunderings and bloodshed perpe- 
trated in the Cherokee Reservation,* in Florida, 
in Texas, in Mexico, and in Kansas, at the be- 
hests of our slavery lords, in order to extend 
their area of oppression. Is it not our duty 
and our safety here at once to repent, confess, 
and give glory to God, break off our sins by 
righteousness, and our iniquities by showiny 
mercy to the poor ? (Josh, vii : 19 ; Dan. iv : 27.) 
If these views of God's nature and law be 
true, can any system or views which teach us 
that utility, or the general good, is the founda- 
tion and great end of virtue — as that alone 

* How impressive and instructive the parallel between the 
guilt and punishment of Ahab and ours ! " In the place 
where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy 
blood, even thine." (1 Kings xxi : 19.) And all this fearful 
dealing because of this wicked ruler's coveting and violently- 
taking possession of Naboth's vineyard. And it was at Mis- 
sionary Ridge, the very scene of our covetousness and cru- 
elty toward the unhappy Cherokees, that their grasping per- 
secutors, the slaveholders of the South, with their guilty 
abettors, the freemen of the North, so profusely poured out 
each other's blood in mutual slaughter ! "Be sure your sin will 
find you out." (Numbers xxii : 23.) 



FALSE VIEWS STATED AND EXPOSED. 45 

which rentiers virtue and its contrary, sin, what 
they are — can such a system, or views, w^e ask, 
be true ? 

So far from this, be it here noted that, there 
is no ethical element whatever in the mere con- 
cept of utility. Take, for example, a house, ac- 
knowledged on all hands to be a very useful 
thing, and yet there is implied in the idea no 
obligation upon me to build, buy, or rent one. If 
I ought to do either of these, in any given case, 
the obligation comes to me through considera- 
tions altogether apart from the idea of a house. 
My family, for example, may need it, and I am 
bound to provide one for them; or a poor 
neighboring family may be without a home, 
and charity may require of me, a man of am- 
ple means, to procure a dwelling for them. 

Hence, is it not plainly my position, as the 
head of a family, or a more favored neighbor, 
which carries the idea of duty with it? But 
it is equally evident that the mere concept of 
a house has in it no moral element whatever. 

Very different, however, is it with the ideas 
of truth, justice, mercy, humanity, etc. The 
ethical element is not only always present here, 
but it is the most prominent part of each of 
these concepts. I ought always, and under all 
circumstances, to "tell truth, do justly, love 



46 ETHICS FOE THE TIMES. 

mercy, and walk humbly before God," and I 
ought to do these things not because it may 
promote my interest, or that of others, but be- 
cause it is right, morally right in itself. The 
nature of God hath made it so, and binds it 
upon me ; for is it not written, "Be ye holy, for 
I am holy, saith the Lord f\ (Micah vi : 8 ; 1 
Pet. i : 16.) 

All moral systems and views are, then, wrong 
and perilous which put utility, or the general 
good, in the place of God's will. Their con- 
tinual tendency is to introduce a mere expedi- 
ency, or policy, or the morality of selfishness, 
as practically the rule of duty, and so ultimately 
break down all true divine ethics, and flood 
the world with immorality, antinomianism, 
universalism, and atheism. 

Dr. Paley, for example, whose system of 
Moral and Political Philosophy advocates the 
doctrine of utility, justifies falsehood under 
certain circumstances. He shows, as he thinks, 
that, in some cases, falsehood is expedient, and, 
therefore, right. And certainly he is in this 
consistent with his system. But the upright, 
unperverted conscience always cries out against 
such teachings. "Flat justitia, mat ccelum." 
Let justice be done, come what may! And 
even a heathen philosopher could say, " Hones- 



FALSE VIEWS STATED AND EXPOSED. 47 

turn, igitur, id intelligimus, quod tale est, ut 
detractaorani utilitate, sine ullis premiis fructi- 
buisve, per soipsum jure possit landari." We 
understand virtue (or moral right) to be of such 
a nature that, irrespective of any consideration 
of use or benefit to ourselves or others, it ought 
for its own sake (or for what it is in itself) to 
be commended. (Cicero De Finibus, 11-14.) 

But in Bosk II, chapter vi, of his Moral 
and Political Philosophy, Dr. Paley explicitly 
teaches that " actions are to be estimated by 
their tendency to promote happiness. What- 
ever is expedient is right. It is the utility of 
any moral ride alone which constitutes the moral 
obligation of it." And hence, in Book III, chap. 
xv, he gives many instances of what he terms 
"Falsehoods which are not criminal." But we 
hesitate not to say that any reader, with the 
Bible in his hands, and his mind not perverted 
by a false philosophy, will unhesitatingly pro- 
nounce these cases, instances of lying — lying 
which, if not repented of, must bring down on 
the offender the righteous indignation and pun- 
ishment of Almighty God. 

In truth, the whole "system of utility," as 
we may term it, is false. It at once lowers our 
ideas of God and his law T . Its constant tend- 
ency is to give us another ruler and another 



48 ETHICS FOR TOE TIMES. 

rule. In opposition to this system, we main- 
tain that we ought to do right, if there were no 
other reason, or none we could see, because 
God's holy nature and law require it; and we 
ought to punish wrong-doing on the same ground. 
This we believe to be clearly the teaching of 
Scripture and nnperverted conscience. 

And if we depart here from the Bible, and 
that moral sense which the God of the Bible 
has given us, we are as a ship in a dark night on 
a stormy ocean, without a compass and a helm. 
We have really no standard, no directory. 

To say, act for the good of the whole, is to 
require me, a finite creature, to comprehend an 
infinite subject. I can not tell, if left to myself, 
what is good for the whole. God alone, the 
omniscient God, knows this. 

But, blessed be the Lord, I am sure that if I 
obey him, though often perhaps I can not see 
how it will be brought about, yet such conduct 
will at last be found for the good of the whole. 

Utility, or the good of the whole, as a prin- 
ciple of action, is an incomprehensible, and, 
therefore, an impracticable, rule; but "the com- 
mandment of God is a lamp, and his law is light. 
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise 
the simple." (Prov. vi : 23; Ps. xix : 7.) 

Let us, indeed, be grateful that God, in his 



FALSE VIEWS STATED AND EXPOSED. 49 

infinite benevolence, holiness, and power, has 
indissolnhly associated his glory with the hap- 
piness of his obedient creatures, so that if we 
Bimply seek to glorify God in obedience to his 
law, or revealed will, we shall assuredly promote 
our own best interests and those of others. 

It is evidently, therefore, under the divine 
system, not wrong to be influenced by a desire 
to be happy. We would be not men, but 
moral monsters, if we did not desire our own 
welfare. Indeed, are we not required to "love 
our neighbor, as ourselves," thus making self- 
love (not selfishness, but self-love,) or our con- 
stitutional desire to be happy, a motive and a 
measure for the love due our neighbor? But 
let us never forget that the only true, right, and 
certain way to do both ; that is, to benefit our- 
selves and others is supremely to seek God's 
glory in a hearty obedience to his holy, just, 
and good commandments. 

Such, then, we are assured, is God's perfectly 
wise, holy, benevolent, moral system of the 
universe, having its origin and foundation solely 
in the infinite and unsearchable depths of his 
own holy nature — his glory its ultimate or great 
end, and the happiness of all his holy, obedient 
creatures indissolubly and eternally bound up 
in this high and glorious end. 
4 



50 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER Yin. 

ETHICS OF COMPROMISES. 

Compromises have ever been the bane of na- 
tions. By these reprehensible compromises we 
mean the surrender, at least for a time, of 
principle, either to sustain or introduce some 
wicked institution, or some unrighteous inter- 
ests, and so establish a false peace. In this 
way justice is given up, and multitudes are 
often cruelly oppressed to favor a few. ^ 

But the sensible and safe conservative (as 
he considers himself) who is seduced into a 
compromise, soon finds that he has sold his 
principles and lost the price. The knaves who 
deceived or corrupted him will observe the terms 
of the guilty bargain just so long as it is to their 
interest. But just as soon as they see that it 
will only inure to the benefit of their dupe, 
they will find some way, either by craft or 
bluster, to break up the compromise. 

What mournful proofs does the history of 
our country give us of the folly, the wicked- 



ETHICS OF COMPROMISES. 51 

ness, and terrible consequences of these polit- 
ical bargains ! Our fathers compromised with 
slavery, because it appeared comparatively a 
very small thing, and might soon be got rid 
of. But " the little cloud," at the time " no 
larger than a man's hand," soon spread and 
darkened our whole heavens, and came down 
upon us in a tempest of wrath. It cost us 
more than a million of lives and upward of 
three billions of dollars to get rid of the in- 
iquity of slavery thus foisted upon us. But 
terrible as was the sacrifice, the blessing was 
cheaply purchased. 

But, oh how slow are we to learn wisdom L 
Before the lightning flash of God's righteous 
indignation has entirely passed away, and 
while the thunder of his wrath still mutters 
on our ears, we begin to contrive some cun- 
ning policy by which we may cheat our long 
and cruelly oppressed ones, who so magnani- 
mously forgave us and came to our help in 
the darkest night of our national calamity ! 
Yes, the danger now apparently over, we 
would defraud our faithful colored friends and 
fellow-citizens, who so nobly poured out their 
blood on many a battle-field to put down the 
rebellion and uphold our country's flag ! " Is 
there any attribute of the Almighty thai will take 



a 



52 ETHICS FOR TIIE TIMES. 

part with us here ? " Mr. Jefferson would ask of 
us, were he now living, as lie once did on a 
similar occasion. 

And all this meanness and villainy that we 
may conciliate traitors ! Yes, traitors dripping 
with the blood of our murdered fathers and broth- 
ers. And more than this, we are to receive 
them back not only to all the rights they had 
forfeited, but to the control of the Govern- 
ment, and so again degrade ourselves before 
the nations of the earth, and more deeply than 
ever imperil all a free people hold sacred and 
precious. 

But if we do this foolish and wicked thing, 
how know we that we may yet have another 
day of deliverance ? or, if we do, it may come 
to us after a still more protracted, dark, and 
bloody struggle ? Certainly, we seem now to be 
" treasuring up for ourselves wrath." If God 
puts a price in a nation's hand to get wisdom, 
and they madly evade or delay the duty ; their 
period of probation may speedily pass away, 
and they themselves be left to perpetual re- 
proach, and suffering, and ruin ! Let us be 
wise in this our day of merciful visitation. 

An instructive view of the evils' of compro- 
mise was lately presented in the debates of the 
United States Senate. We have not the public 



ETHICS OF COMPROMISES. 53 

reports at hand, and therefore must write from 
memory. 

A bill had passed the House of Representa- 
tives and was sent up to the Senate for its con- 
currence. It was generally conceded to be an 
important bill; but, with much that was ex- 
cellent, it contained a clause making it, or at 
least recognizing it, as a constitutional right in a 
State to disfranchise at will any of its citizens. 

A Senator, while expressing a strong general 
approbation of the bill, opposed it on account 
of its disfranchising clause. He argued that it 
would be better to wait still longer for the 
acknowledged benefits which the bill offered 
to the country, rather than by constitutional 
provision allow, or at least recognize, in any 
State the right to inflict so great a wrong; 
that the reconstructed rebels would, sooner or 
later, take advantage of the power thus un- 
justly conceded to them to defeat all the ben- 
eficial results expected from the bill; that, 
^'come to the worst, it would be better to be 
defeated on the ground of principle than to be 
victorious by compromising principle. The 
bill was rejected. 

But, for his opposition to the bill, the speaker 
was assailed by another very able and distin- 
guished Senator. His speeches were generally 



54 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

described as exhibiting the Senatorial peda- 
gogue and sophomorical declaimer. Allowing 
this criticism to be just — which it is not — it 
was not only untimely, out of place, and un- 
dignified, but it was morally wrong to en- 
deavor by ridicule, to bring contempt upon an 
eminent and patriotic public servant, and thus 
impair his influence for good to his country. 
We hesitate not to say that the first Senator 
was constitutionally and ethically right, and 
that the country will unquestionably sustain 
him and the Senate for rejecting the measure. 
His assailant was not only politically but eth- 
ically wrong, and laid himself open to the 
suspicion of being instigated by selfish feel- 
ings of personal rivalry, or the spirit of a nar- 
row-minded partisanship. 



INFLUENCE UPON THE REBELLION. 55 



CHAPTER IX. 

OUR PRESENT ETIIICAL INFLUENCE UPON THE 
REBELLIOUS SOUTH. 

It is a most fearful thought, and still we 
must not here pass it over in silence, that the 
recent revival of a treasonable spirit all over 
the South, and the still more alarming evidence 
of utter moral dissolution there, may be clearly 
traced, in a great measure, to the low moral, 
or rather altogether unrighteous, course of the 
North toward these Southern traitors. Are 
we not, practically, every day saying to tlicm: 
" Treason is no crime. Oh no I We have already 
forgotten the bloody graves of our fathers, brothers, 
and sons, scattered all over the land. We are 
ready at once again to join hands with you as very 
honest, -worthy gentlemen — only a little mistaken I " 
But does not " the voice of blood cry from, the 
ground?" and are we not really and deeply in- 
volving ourselves in a fearful complicity of 
guilt with murderers? (Gen. v: 10. Num- 
bers xxxv : 31-34.) 

Why have not the ringleaders, civil and 
military, of the late most unprovoked and 



56 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

bloody rebellion not been capitally punished 
for their horrid crimes ? And why have not 
the vast landed estates of the rich rebels, used 
hitherto only to oppress all around them, white 
and colored, been seized and employed to pay 
the wages so hardly earned and so long kept 
back of their poor crushed laborers, and to re- 
ward our patriotic soldiers for their valor in 
putting down this wicked rebellion, and saving 
their deeply imperiled country? 

Let then the legislatures of the several loyal 
States, and the people of these States, in every 
Congressional district, adopt and send up to 
their servants in Washington instructions to 
do promptly this great duty of national justice 
and patriotism. Such a lesson they would not 
be apt to slight. 

A righteous God, and his righteous law and 
righteous providence, and our Constitution and 
laws, and our beloved country's future welfare — 
nay, her very life — -these all solemnly now sum- 
mon us to this upright and manly course ; and 
woe to us if, in this hour of our nation's awful 
crisis, we trifle about policy and expediency, 
and shut our ears, and harden our hearts, and 
stupefy our conscience against the voice of truth 
and justice! If thus madly guilty, the blood 
of this most wicked rebellion will assuredly 



INFLUENCE UPON THE REBELLION. bi 

come upon our whole country, and bring down 
upon us speedy and utter destruction. 

It may be well here to add, that when we 
spoke, in the beginning of this chapter, of "the 
unrighteous course of the North," we did not 
mean by " the North " the people directly, but 
the people as represented by their leaders in and 
out of office. 

The people have always been far more honest, 
clear-headed, decided, practically sagacious, and 
patriotic than their leaders. The latter, meas- 
uring the people by themselves, rarely manifest 
a fearless, generous confidence in their constit- 
uents. Hence a misty, timid, cunning policy 
is their usual refuge and strength. They are 
afraid to be frank, manly, upright, patriotic, 
lest the people will not sustain them. 

This view of the people and their leaders 
has been very often clearly and strikingly ex- 
emplified in the last few most eventful and stir- 
ring years. The party leaders and the Admin- 
istration have nearly always manifestly been 
far behind the people. Energetically to carry 
on the war; promptly to punish traitors; and 
thoroughly to sweep away slavery, and all its 
debasing and abominable influences, so disas- 
trous to the country ; and to see the national 
Hag floating over a universally free, loyal land : 



58 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

such have ever been the desire and determina- 
tion of the people. They have never swervered 
from this patriotic resolve ; but their grand 
difficulty was not to find in themselves a will 
and ability strong enough, morally and physi- 
cally, to overcome traitors, but to inspire into 
their leaders and the Administration a confi- 
dence, an energy, and a patriotism that would 
qualify them for the crisis. In answer to every 
popular call to go a mile ahead — if we may so 
express ourselves — the Administration would 
move perhaps a rod, often scarcely a foot. Still, 
the war was at last closed, and the General 
Government was avowedly recognized in all the 
States. And the people, with their usual good 
sense, jjatriotism, and feeling of justice, have 
never ceased since to call for the condign pun- 
ishment of traitors, the universal establishment 
of freedom, and for such righteous adminis- 
tration of law as will render treason odious in 
all coming ages, and so insure the future safety 
of the republic. 

But here, again, the leaders and the Admin- 
istration lag far behind the people. Not a 
leading traitor has been condignly punished. 
Your Stephenses, your Lees, your Beauregards 
yet walk at large, and Jeff. Davis is still at 
ease and in safety, and, at the public expense, 



INFLUENCE UPON THE REBELLION. , 59 

meditating future schemes of secession. It is 
common now to ascribe this state of things, 
so full of danger to the whole country, solely 
to the President's " policy ;" but, in truth, had 
the other departments of the Government, and 
the public leaders generally, stood up man- 
fully with the people and for the people, the 
selfish, infatuated, wicked policy of no one man, 
or hungry clique of office-seekers could have 
endured a single month, much less wrought out 
evils so multitudinous and disastrous, against a 
wise, resolute, patriotic union of leaders and 
people. 

It is, therefore, for the people themselves 
now to make their representatives feel by their 
instructions, and especially by their votes at 
the coming elections, that trifling with treason 
and further forbearance with traitors is ruin 
to the country. This popular demonstration, 
we doubt not, will speedily be given, and what 
name will soon be more execrated throughout 
the South than that of the author of " my 
policy." The people there had been so cruelly 
ground down by the military despotism of 
Jeff. Davis, and so thoroughly subdued by the 
armies of the loyal North, that they were read}' 
to accept any terms, and do any thing which 
the Genera) Government would think proper to 



GO, ETHICS FOE TTIE TIMES. 

require. And had this disposition continued, 
the South would at this moment have been far 
onward and upward in the path of peace, good 
order, and prosperity. But " my policy " — most 
manifestly to secure an election to the Presi- 
dency — has done much to destroy all this good. 
The spirit of hate and rebellion has again been 
kindled at the South ; all is there now agita- 
tion and fearful uncertainty. Robbery, rape, 
conflagration, and murder stalk over the land 
unrestrained and unpunished ; and Union men, 
white and colored, are every- where proscribed 
and persecuted unto death. Who, then, is 
responsible for all this? Not merely the infat- 
uated ambition of the author of " my policy," 
but the culpable timidity of better men. 

Let the people now so loudly lift up their 
voice for the right, that justice shall be every- 
where done, promptly done, and so the country be 
universally pacified. 

There is one comfort to be derived from this 
terrible outbreak in the late rebel States. It 
must produce a profound popular conviction of 
the madness and the wickedness of " my pol- 
icy," and make every loyal heart feel, to its 
ver} 7 depth, that we must, if we would save our 
beloved country, promptly execute the be- 
hests of a true justice and a pure, lofty patri- 



AN ANALYSIS OF A MORAL NATURE. 01 

olism upon the head of ever}' evil-doer. Trai- 
tors, South and North, must be made to feel 
that our country, our Government, our free 
institutions, are worth something. 



CHAPTER X. 

AN ANALYSIS OF A MORAL NATURE. 

There are many things quite generally felt 
to be true, and their consequences almost uni- 
versally accepted, and yet very few have a 
proper understanding of them, and can defend 
their position, or the course to which, their 
convictions lead them. It is pre-eminently so 
in respect to what is termed a moral nature. 
Men speak of it every day, and are, they feel, 
bound continually to act it out, and to require 
of others to do the same ; and yet how few 
have any definite, clear conception of a moral 
nature, and how many and dangerous the 
errors here. What, then, it may properly be 
asked, is a moral nature f We very briefly 
reply, it is made up of three elements. First, 
an understanding, to discern the relation, of 



62 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

things ; second, a conscience, or moral sense, 
to see and feel the moral obligations growing 
out of these relations ; and, thirdly, a will free 
to obey or disobey these dictates of conscience. 

He who has such an understanding, such a 
conscience, such a will, is a moral agent, and 
consciously so. He is so regarded, too, in the 
universal judgment of mankind, and as such 
he is always addressed in the Word of God. 

A being thus endowed, whether man or 
angel, whether in the body or out of the body, 
knows that there are some things which he 
ought to do, and others tha/t he ought not to do, 
and that he is justly responsible for all his 
moral conduct, and deserves all the retributions 
of a righteous judgment. 

But take away any one of the above three 
described faculties, and you destroy moral 
agency, and, consequently, moral responsibility. 
To punish, for example, an insane man or an 
idiot, in whom the moral faculties, to say the 
least, are, for the time, not in exercise, or a 
brute beast, that clearly has no such capacities, 
is manifestly unjust and absurd. 

And here the question may fairly arise — so 
important, as all must see, and' yet so little 
understood, because not regarded in the light 
of a true ethics — what ought we to think and 



AN ANALYSIS OF A MORAL NATURE. 03 

to do in the case of crimes committed during 
intoxication ? Altogether to clear the drunk- 
ard of criminality for his conduct is evidently 
unjust and full of danger to the community. 
Indeed, no one is safe if any wretch who con- 
ceives a spite against him may hide behind the 
shield of voluntary drunkenness and commit 
brutal and, perhaps, fatal violence upon his 
victim. 

But how regard the conduct of such an evil- 
doer? It has, we think, a clear illustration in 
the case of a man who, sitting on the ridge of 
a roof, and so not able to see immediately 
downward over the front wall of the house, 
were to roll bowlders from above upon the public 
pavement below, and in this way kill some un- 
happy passer-by. Such a man might plead 
that he had no personal malice toward the in- 
dividual killed, that he did not know he was 
on the pavement, and, it may be, that he never 
had any acquaintance with him whatever. 
Who would be satisfied with this excuse? 
Why, to commit such an outrage clearly shows 
that the man was actuated by a general malig- 
nity against human nature ; that he was in heart 
a murderer, and that he became actually such 
through his own fault. 

So, also, the drunkard. When he became 



64 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

voluntarily intoxicated, he committed one of 
the greatest of crimes, because it virtually in- 
volved all the crimes possible for him to per- 
petrate in that state. He voluntarily cast aside 
for a time the all-important power of self- 
government with which his Maker had en- 
dowed him, and so laid himself open to every 
temptation to any and every act of wickedness. 
For him, then, to plead that he had no personal 
malice against the individual whose life he de- 
stroyed — perhaps that he did not even know 
him — such a plea, we say, is no better in his 
case than in that of the man who wickedly 
rolled down bowlders upon casual passengers. 
The drunkard knew, or he ought to have 
known, when he voluntarily threw away his 
God-given safeguard against temptation and 
crime, that he incurred a liability to most fear- 
ful consequences both to himself and others. 
He is, therefore, really guilty, and ought to be 
treated as such on the same principle that we 
just now condemned the wretch who destroyed 
life by rolling bowlders from the house-top, 
though he, too, had no special malice toward 
his victim. He could not, indeed, after he had 
let loose the stone, stop it in its career down- 
ward ; neither can the drunkard, in many cases, 
check the mad violence of passions which he 



AN ANALYSIS OF A MORAL NATURE. 65 

himself had unchained. But the question here 
is, Who loosed the tiger ? 

Is not, then, the crime of drunkenness doubly 
great — great in itself because an outrage upon 
the man's own higher nature, and great because 
known on his part to involve terrible conse- 
quences to himself and others? 

But, alas, how little do drunkards — how little 
does even society, in its present moral status — 
think of this ! Drunkards, as well as the com- 
munity generally, treat intoxication as a very 
little evil, scarcely to be accounted such — in- 
deed, often a thing only to be laughed at. 
"The fellow is a little tight! He has got a 
brick in his hat ! " And thus do "fools make 
a mock at sin." (Prov. xiv : 9.) But is it not 
written, "Nor drunkards shall inherit the kingdom 
of God ?" (ICor. vi: 10.) 

When will our country rise to the elevation 
of a true ethics here, and regard and punish, 
drunkenness as other crimes, or rather as one 
of the greatest of these, because the monster 
parent of that countless progeny of vices and 
crimes that is continually destroying the peace 
of individuals, of families, and of society gen- 
erally ? 



66 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER XI. 

ETHICS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 

The justice and need of the death-penalty 
have been questioned by some. But the founda- 
tion and evidences for it are abundantly clear 
and satisfactory, both in the Word of God and 
the general voice of mankind in all ages. 

Before the deluge — so far as appears — the 
experiment of the social state without capital 
punishment was long and fairly tried. And 
what was the result? "The earth was filled 
with violence." (Gen. vi: 11.) The ground 
became so deeply stained with blood-guiltiness 
that only the waters of a deluge could cleanse it. 

Immediately after this awful judgment of 
Almighty God, the precept was given to Noah, 
the second head of the race, and through him 
to the whole human family, " Whoso sheddeth 
man's blood, by men shall his blood be shed; 
for in the image of God made he man." (Gen. 
ix: 6.) This great divine law, grounded on 
the " rock of ages," God's eternal and immuta- 
ble character, was republished on very many 



ETHICS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 67 

occasions afterward, and was continued in force 
under the Mosaic economy ; and when the 
gospel dispensation succeeded, not a word was 
said implying the abrogation of this law. On 
the contrary, its continuance and binding power 
are clearly taught us in such passages of the 
Scripture as these : " The ruler beareth not the 
sword in vain ; for he is the minister of God, 
a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that 
doeth evil." (Rom. xiii : 4.) 

We know that the sword was the usual in* 
strument of capital punishment under the 
Roman Government; and hence, in the use of 
this figurative language, the apostle here rec- 
ognizes and sustains the justice and the need 
of the death-penalty. And on another occa- 
sion, when the apostle was himself on trial 
before a Roman court, he thus expresses his 
views of capital punishment: "If I be an of- 
fender, or have committed any thing worthy 
of death, I refuse not to die." (Acts xxv: 2.) 
Here, also, the apostle is seen in his own case 
to acknowledge the justice and the need of the 
death-penalty under certain circumstances. 

And it is a remarkable fact, too, that all 
nations and people, ancient and modern, how- 
ever separated in religion, customs, modes of 
government, distance, or in any other respect, 



68 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

all unite in declaring the death-penalty just 
and needful ; n the case of the murderer; and 
in that of the traitor, also, who aims a fatal 
blow, not at the life of one man, but at that of 
the whole community. 

We have, then, the law of God — the Sov- 
ereign, Creator, Ruler, and Judge — and we 
have, also, the almost universal judgment of 
men, in all ages and countries, in favor of the 
justice and the necessity of capital punishment 
for certain crimes. 

To go against such evidence, must it not 
involve fearful responsibility ? A false human- 
itarianism is one of the most dangerous forms of 
falsehood, injustice, and real cruelty. 






THE ETHICS OF EXPEDIENCY. 69 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE ETHICS OF EXPEDIENCY. 

We are persuaded that there is no error 
which has spread so widely at this day, and is 
so balefully demoralizing the public mind, as 
the doctrine of expediency. 

Not long since, as we were walking on the 
street, we met a judge, and, after conversing 
with him a few minutes about a shocking mur- 
der that had been recently committed, we asked 
him what would probably be done. He coolly 
replied, "Perhaps nothing. You know," he 
added, " that when a case of this sort occurs, 
the public mind is at first horrified, and an al- 
most universal cry bursts out for the condign 
punishment of the murderer. But very soon 
this dies awa}% and such strong influences be- 
gin to be put forth to release the offender that 
it is difficult, perhaps not possible, certainly 
not expedient, to resist, and so the whole matter 
too often comes to nothing, or next to nothing." 

Of this sad fact, indeed, we were w^ell aware ; 
but at once the reflection came rushing upon 



70 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

us, " Alas ! so* soon to forget the poor victim, 
lying in his bloody grave, and to have no more 
feeling for the cruelly bereaved wife and chil- 
dren, and to regard so little outraged law and 
an outraged country, but to be all sympathy 
for the murderer whose hands are yet dripping 
with blood, "What a dreadfully demoralized 
state of the public mind does this demonstrate ! 
How Godless, how brutal, how atheistic ! " But, 
alas ! this is the natural result of the impious 
doctrine of expediency. 

How common, also, is it now to meet, in cer- 
tain public prints, such expressions as this : "It 
is perhaps not expedient to hang Jeff. Davis" etc.; 
that is to say, if you execute such a villain, 
you will give offense to thoughtless men, here 
and there, who have little or no concern for 
morals or law ; and to wicked men, who are too 
conscious of their own ill-desert to think well 
of punishment of any kind or degree, and to 
infidel humanitarians, who eagerly seize upon 
any occasion to make a cheap display of their 
superior humanity. And so, by this foolish, 
corrupt influence, are better men too often led 
silently to acquiesce in the impunity of the 
most atrocious criminals. " It is not expedient!" 

But we would solemnly remind all such easy 
ones that there is a crime that they seem little 



THE ETniCS OF EXPEDIENCY. 71 

to think of, terrible as it really is — the crime 
of substituting expediency for justice, the crime 
of thus practically nullifying God's holy law 
and all righteous law, and so opening wide the 
flood-gates of vice and villainy upon the coun- 
try, just to please a few bad men, or to pander 
to a corrupt public sentiment. What a fearful 
weight of guilt do these men of expediency 
bring upon themselves, and how awful their 
account in the last day, when a just judgment 
will surely be visited upon them, and all other 
evil-doers ! 

Let us ever solemnly bear in mind that, in 
the case of crime, our one fixed determination 
and endeavor should be to "do justice" and 
calmly leave the consequences to Almighty 
God, the righteous sovereign of the universe. 
This is our wisdom and our safety, and it is the 
plainest teaching of a true ethics. 

The terrible results of the policy of expedi- 
ency were clearly and most impressively ex- 
hibited in the assassination of President Lincoln. 

Mr. Hamlin, by education and social circum- 
stances no friend of slavery, or its demoralizing 
and mischievous influences, was selected as 
candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United 
States, on the ticket with Mr. Lincoln as Presi- 
dent. Having successfully fought this first hat- 



72 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

tie for freedom, and been elected to office, and 
having shared in the responsibilities, the labors, 
and the perils of conducting the country safely 
through the rebellion, a true ethics identified 
before the country these two distinguished 
men, and called upon them, by every principle 
of integrity and honor, to sink or swim to- 
gether. 

But when the time of a second election drew 
nigh, Mr. Lincoln, (as was almost certain be- 
fore, but now made positively so by the dis- 
closures of the Secretary of the Senate of the 
United States, Mr. Forney,) moved by the 
policy of expediency, put forth an influence, 
or at least caused it to be used, upon the Con- 
vention at Baltimore, which substituted Mr. 
Johnson as candidate for the Vice-Presidency. 

But, alas for the shortsightedness of human 
nature ! this expedient to conciliate doubtful 
men and disloyal men seemed to some won- 
drously wise ; but very speedily was the folly 
of it manifested. Mr. Hamlin, as an anti slavery 
man, was the great safeguard of Mr. Lincoln. 
He was Mr. Lincoln's best policy of life insur- 
ance. But from the moment of the election of 
a slaveholder to the Yice-Presidency, Mr. Lin- 
coln's days were not worth calculating. The 
traitors knew their advantage, and speedily 



I 



THE ETHICS OF EXPEDIENCY. 73 

improved it. Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, 
and the secessionists have not been disappointed 
in their expectations of the results. And how 
alarmingly are these results every day now 
coming out. And what is yet before us God 
alone knows. The Government has trifled with 
treason and dandled with traitors, and we are 
now reaping the harvest of this our folly and 
wickedness. We have reason at this moment 
to apprehend a second and more terrible na- 
tional crisis. May it find the great body of the 
loyal people, through God's guidance and bless- 
ing, thoroughly prepared for it! 

A true ethics indissolubly associated Mr. 
Lincoln and Mr. Hamlin ; but a cunning, timid 
expediency seemed to call for the retirement 
of Mr. Hamlin, and to this policy, as events 
have shown, was Mr. Lincoln the sacrifice. 

But it is not the first time that a noble 
though mistaken man has fallen a victim of 
political expediency. "We have long since been 
warned, by the highest authority, that when a 
good man is betrayed into such a position, he 
lays himself open to the most dire calamities. 
The evils of this policy not unfrequently " re- 
turn upon his own head, and come down upon 
his own pate." 

But the terrible influence of the doctrine of 



74 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

expediency may now be most widely, and 
deeply, and mournfully studied in the history 
of the late war. 

That slavery was the chief cause of the re- 
bellion is acknowledged on all hands — at the 
outset by secessionists themselves, and very 
soon by the loyal people at the North. And 
it speedily became manifest that slavery was 
the main strength and support of the war on 
the part of the South. 

Just on the eve of our troubles, and before 
any battle had been fought, a citizen of the 
West, earnestly wishing to avert so dire a ca- 
lamity from the country, became convinced 
that this could be done without the shedding of 
one drop of blood, if we, instead of trifling any 
longer with cunning but delusive and wicked 
expedients, would manfully place our foot at 
once on the ground of right. Accordingly, he 
sent a communication to the President and 
members of the Cabinet, and other leading 
men, in which, after briefly showing the origin, 
growth, and malign influence of slavery over 
the whole country, and demonstrating that it 
was the chief reason of the terrible evils then 
impending, he pointed out the way to a true, 
peaceful, and immediate deliverance of the na- 
tion. We here subjoin a few extracts: 






THE ETHICS OF EXPEDIENCY. 75 

" Slavery, instead of dying out in a few years, 
as our patriotic fathers believed it would, has 
gone on extending, till at last, emboldened, in- 
fatuated by success, it has openly proclaimed its 
policy to crush out the very spirit of freedom 
from the Union, and subdue the whole country, 
in all time to come, to its own hateful rule. 

" But though the free States have hitherto 
been shackled at every step by the influence 
of slavery propagandism, yet, in spite of this, 
they continued to advance in population and 
wealth, and every thing which deservedly 
gives weight to a people. The encroachments 
of the slave power began, however, within a 
few years past, to be so manifest and full of 
peril, that the free States could no longer 
close their eyes to the fearful fact that they 
must soon be stripped of their precious legacy 
of civil and religious liberty, and sink down 
into poor, dastard serfs, or they must arise in 
their strength, and exercise their constitutional 
right of taking the administration of the Na- 
tional Government into their own hands, if 
they could. They did so fairly ; but had they 
failed in the late National election, they would 
no doubt, as before, have quietly submitted till 
another occasion was presented of legally right- 
ing themselves. 



76 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

"Not so the slaveholding oligarchy. When 
they discovered that they could no longer rule, 
they determined to ruin. It is now the auda- 
cious policy of secession to seize upon the Na-. 
tional capital, break up the General Govern- 
ment, and usurp the power of the whole 
country. The mask is thrown aside; they 
have recently told us that the Fugitive-slave 
Law, and other kindred measures, were merely 
pretexts got up in times past to humiliate and 
break down the spirit of the free North, and 
that disunion has really been their master- 
policy and purpose from the beginning. 

" But we needed not this shameless avowal. 
General Jackson long since understood the 
whole case. In speaking of the South Caro- 
lina nullification movement of his day, and 
which he nipped in the bud, he remarked, * It 
was tariff then; next it will be the nigger!' 
But the stern old man put down his foot, and, 
with his usual oath, declared that he ' would 
hang the chief leader of that treasonable scheme 
if he proceeded a step further ; that the Union 
must and shall be preserved' This firmness 
killed in a moment that secession rebellion. 
And the same result would have followed 
under the late Administration had the same 
brave, patriotic spirit animated it. 



THE ETHICS OF EXPEDIENCY. 77 

" The cause of all our troubles is now patent. 
For years the slaveholding oligarchy has had 
a school of politicians — cunning, unscrupulous, 
ambitious — laboring most industriously and in- 
sidiously to keep out all light, and poison the 
minds of the people with secession schemes. 
And when they saw that their day of rule was 
over, they determined to strike a bold stroke 
for power. Doubtless they were encouraged 
to this mad attempt at usurpation by equally 
artful, unscrupulous politicians at the North, 
who led them to believe that there were mul- 
titudes in the free States who sympathized and 
would make common cause with them against 
the Union. 

" The whole secret, then, is just this : Seces- 
sion is merely the means by which the slave- 
holding oligarchy are determined to perpetuate 
their power, crush out freedom, and rule a 
newly -constructed pro-slavery Union. 

" Shall they do it? The whole free North have 
arisen as one man, and declared they shall not. 
Whether, then, the Union shall be restored or 
we become a separate people, this point is 
settled: the free men of the North will never 
hereafter bow their necks knowingly to slavery 
domination. 

" What, then, is now our greatest danger ? 



78 ETniCS FOR THE TIMES. 

Does not the above rapid sketch of onr coun- 
try's history supply the answer ? 

" The South has all along been really weak, 
and she has hitherto ruled — or, rather, a very 
small slaveholding aristocracy has ruled — alike 
over the free masses in the South and in 
the North, and it has done this only by a 
series of compromises. The famous Missouri 
Compromise was merely one example of this, 
and its history is full of instruction. When 
an honest man is simple enough to make a 
compromise — that is, to yield a principle for 
the sake of expediency — the rogue will observe 
his part of the bargain just so long as he can 
profit by it, and then be sure to repeal it; so 
that in the end the victim finds that he has 
sold his principles and been cheated out of 
the price. 

" The secessionists well know that the Con- 
stitution, honestly carried out, kills all their 
hopes ; and that to defend and uphold free- 
dom, not slavery, will hereafter be the sublime 
mission of this Union, as its noble authors in- 
tended it should be. Hence, they are not sat- 
isfied with the Constitution as our fathers gave 
it to us. O no! They must have engrafted 
upon it such changes as will guarantee slavery, 
incorporate it into our very national existence, 



THE ETHICS OF EXPEDIENCY. 79 

unalterably pledge all the people of the Union 
to indorse and uphold it to the end of time. 
Slavery would then be, not sectional as it now 
is, and bad enough as that is, but national. 

"Are the free States prepared to do this? 
With our whole soul we believe not. And 
yet their greatest danger is being cheated into 
it — cunningly led under the yoke before they 
are aware of it. Let them only even consent 
to parley with the tempter, to open their ears 
to the siren song of com/promise, and all is over 
with them ; their locks will be shorn, and the 
Philistines be upon them, and put them to 
j grinding corn in the prison-house/ the only 
employment they will then be fit for. 

"As much as we abhor chattel slavery, we 
do admire the outspoken frankness of Mr. 
Stephens, the Vice-President of the sham re- 
public. He proclaimed to the world, in a late 
speech, that slavery is the corner-stone of the 
secession confederacy; that its grand and pe- 
culiar mission is — as, indeed, the Rev. Dr. 
Palmer, of New Orleans, had taught them — 
to perpetuate and extend slavery ; and that to 
uphold this diabolical crusade against the 
whole civilized world, they pledged their lives, 
their fortunes, and their sacred honor. 

"From what we know, however, of the 



80 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

eraft, the violence, and the villainy with which 
State after State has been hurried into seces- 
sion by a few leading spirits, may we not hope 
that Mr. Stephens has misrepresented the great 
mass of the Southern people, the non-slave- 
holders? But should it be found that this 
declaration of Mr. Stephens is, indeed, the fair 
expression of sentiment, rooted and grounded 
in the Southern mind, how can we ever be 
brought together on the same platform ? Such 
an attempt at union would be the madman's 
folly of mingling fire and gunpowder. 

"A glorious destiny, we trust, is before the 
free North, if we go alone, as perhaps we 
must; but the South, in thralldom to a slave- 
holding oligarchy, will be left to work out a 
fearful ruin, unless a Napoleon — perhaps now 
born — is mercifully raised up to coerce into 
peace and order those who are manifestly in- 
capable of self-government — unfit for free in- 
stitutions. 

"Do not recent events in our country sig- 
nally confirm the teachings of God's Word, 
and of all history, that they who oppress 
others must themselves, sooner or later, suc- 
cumb to the yoke? Yerily, the prospect of 
the slaves is brighter than that of their mas- 
ters and the non-slaveholding masses about 



THE ETHICS OF EXPEDIENCY. 81 

them ; for to the former the day of their re- 
demption seems at hand, but the latter have 
a long, dreary night before them. 

" Another lesson : Does not the present posi- 
tion of the seceded States place the startling 
alternative before every friend of freedom and 
the Union throughout the country, You must 
kill slavery or slavery will kill you ? "When the 
judgments of God are abroad in a land, is the 
warning of inspiration, it becomes the inhab- 
itants thereof to learn righteousness. The 
'cry of the oppressed' has for many long 
years been going up to heaven from our coun- 
try, and the vials of wrath are now being 
poured out upon us. Are we learning right- 
eousness? Are we yet willing to put away 
the < accursed thing ' from us ? So sure as 
there is a God in heaven, we shall never know a 
true peace till we do. 

"But can this measure, demanded alike by 
the plainest justice, Christian benevolence, and 
a sound policy, be legally accomplished? It 
can. That great statesman, and honest, fear- 
less patriot, John Quincy Adams, in a debate 
in the House of Representatives, proclaimed 
the law of nations upon this subject : < In 
time of war, whether servile, civil, or foreign, 
not only the President of the United States, 
6 



82 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

but the commander of the army, has power to 
order the universal emancipation of the slaves/ 
This he announced as the well-settled, uni- 
versally-recognized law of nations. The House 
and the country were profoundly impressed by 
its first utterance, and no one has yet been 
found to contradict it. 

" Such a proclamation would instantly par- 
alyze secession, restore peace to the country, 
and perpetuate the Union. We have it, then, 
rightfully in our power to* put away, at once 
and forever, the accursed cause of all our evils. 
And are not all things manifestly drifting to- 
ward this point ? And is not the popular mind 
already far in advance of the politicians? It 
is widely seen and felt that the slaveholding 
oligarchy, by wilfully throwing itself outside 
of the pale of the Constitution, has forfeited 
all claim to the protection of those laws which 
it had cunningly imposed upon the free men 
of the land, in violation of the Constitution, 
to guard and uphold its wicked system of op- 
pression. Wide and plain, then, is the path 
of. deliverance which a good Providence, 
through the infatuation of secessionists, has 
opened before us. And how solemn is our 
responsibility! The future destiny of our be- 
loved country, for weal or for woe, is in the 



THE ETHICS OF EXPEDIENCY. 83 

hands of the men of this generation. Honor, 
interest, duty, the salvation of our free insti- 
tutions, all we hold dear for ourselves and for 
those who shall come after us, call upon us 
now to wipe off the foul blot from our national 
escutcheon, to cut out by the roots the cancer 
that is consuming the very vitals of our 
Republic. 

" Have we an Administration enlightened, 
brave, patriotic enough to take this noble 
stand, and save the whole country, the South 
and the North? A position so sublime could 
not but call forth the admiration and cordial 
support of the great mass of the people. It 
would gain the plaudits of the whole civilized 
world, and achieve for its heroic authors an 
enviable renown in all coming ages." 

But the events of the next three years 
showed that we had not such an Administra- 
tion as the writer of the above hoped. "We 
blundered on from one expedient to another, 
till, at last, it became manifest that we must 
cease from our foolish, crafty devices of expe- 
diency, 'and "do justly," or God would leave 
us to perish. 

It was not so much, then, high moral con- 
siderations and a sense of dutifulness, but a 
clear and stern necessity, that drove the Ad- 



84 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

ministration to that great but long and most 
criminally-delayed measure of righteousness, 
the Proclamation of Emancipation, and the 
call upon our colored fellow-citizens to rally 
round the flag of our common country. 

From that moment the dark clouds broke 
away, and all became clear before us. We 
marched on from victory to victory, till the 
slaveholders' rebellion was crushed out and the 
national banner floated over the whole land. 

Alas for human folly and wickedness! that 
so much precious life was sacrificed, so much 
treasure , wasted, so many homes filled with 
mourning, so many hearts broken all over the 
land, before we were willing to do what was 
simply right— so clearly right in the sight of 
the President himself, that he solemnly in- 
voked "the considerate judgment of mankind 
and the gracious favor of Almighty God " upon 
the act. But we are not alone here in the 
world's history. The great object of human 
governments hitherto seems generally to have_ 
been to avoid doing justice. May our recent 
sad experience burn in upon the very souls of 
our statesmen the folly, the wickedness, and 
the danger of devising political expedients, 
instead of always manfully standing up for 
the right! 



ETHICS OF THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE. 85 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ETHICS OF THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE. 

We have spoken of the moral responsibility 
and criminality of drunkards. But does not 
the fearful state of the inebriate call for the se- 
rious concern of others and of society generally ? 

We here propose, therefore, very briefly to 
notice our duty toward the cause of temper- 
ance. 

1. We ought to set an example of total absti- 
nence from all intoxicating drinks as a beverage, 
because without this we can not here labor con- 
sistently and successfully for the good of others. 
We must be able to show in our own case that 
a strict temperance is practicable and beneficial. 
Only in this way will we be likely to exert a 
salutary influence upon society generally, and 
especially upon the unhappy victim of strong 
drink. 

It is, therefore, needless to endeavor to prove 
that the use of intoxicating liquor, even to taste a 
single drop of wine, is a sin, 'per se, that is wrong 



86 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

in itself. This ground we have heard even 
good men take, and place the temperance cause 
upon it. But equally good men can not accept 
this view. It is well, therefore, that we are 
not required to advocate the cause of temper- 
ance upon this ground. We have a great ethi- 
cal principle here on which all good men may 
stand — broad enough and strong enough upon 
which to stake any interest, however large 
and solemn, without any fear of the result or 
even divisions among good men. It is, there- 
fore, needless to endeavor to prove that the use 
of any intoxicating liquor is a sin in itself. It 
is sufficient to say that, 

2. A true ethics requires us to love our neigh- 
bor as ourselves, and, consequently, to do unto 
him as we would he should do unto us. We 
are required, then, by the great law of charity, 
which is the vital principle of all sound ethics, 
not only to avoid injuring others, but to do 
them all the good we can, especially by our 
example. If we do not feel the force of this 
argument, we have strong grounds to suspect 
our own characters as followers of the Savior, 
or truly moral men. 

No one doubts the lawfulness of eating meat, 
and yet Paul declares " that he would not eat 
meat while the world stands, if thereby he 



ETHICS OF THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE. 87 

caused his neighbor to offend ;" that is, if his 
example was likely to embolden his weak or 
less-enlightened brother to do wrong, or what 
he believed to be wrong. (1 Cor. viii : 13.) 
We want no higher, firmer, or more durable 
ground on which to place the temperance or 
any really good cause. 

3. For the same reason we ought not to make, 
buy, sell, or give such liquors as a beverage, or 
rent our property or loan our capital to those 
who will use it for such purposes. All such 
practices, and the profits thereof, are " the price 
of blood" Do they not cause the cry of murder 
to come up from all parts of the land, and 
send tens of thousands every year into an 
undone eternity ? Surely a true ethics forbids 
such practices and profits. 



88 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ETHICS OP DIVORCE. 

The family is the foundation of the State for 
morals and durability. Let the family be rightly 
ordered, and the community will certainly be 
peaceful and prosperous. But badly-brought- 
up children will be sure to make bad citizens 
and a declining country. 

That there has been a great increase of crime 
throughout the land for years past we all know, 
and that penal laws are fast losing their power is 
very manifest. Respect for government among 
us is certainly not so widely and deeply felt as it 
once was. Hence the open and quite general 
prevalence of gambling, and violation of the 
Sabbath, and other vices, in the very teeth of 
public enactments. And hence, also, the fre- 
quent mobs, and still more numerous acts of 
individual violence, daily reported . in all parts 
of the land. 

All these evils begin in the family. The 
want of proper instruction and government 



ETHICS OF DIVORCE. WJ 

there sends out those bitter streams, which agi- 
tate and infect, and must, if not checked, finally 
destroy the body politic. The cure must, 
therefore, begin in families. So long as these 
are in an unsound state, it is plain the commu- 
nity can never become healthy. Things must 
go on from bad to worse, till such a general 
alarm be felt as shall lead to a radical repent- 
ance and reformation, or a moral dissolution 
so deep and universal ensue as must terminate 
the nation's life. 

Now, what has so fearfully impaired the pur- 
ity and good order of the family among us ? 
Doubtless there are many causes continually 
operating this disastrous result ; but we hesitate 
not to say that one of the greatest, if not the 
greatest, of these causes, is the vicious facility 
of divorce. A strong sense and feeling of the 
sanctity of the marriage relation are essential 
to render farnilies the abode of virtue and hap- 
piness. But our legislation is, for the most 
part, too well calculated to impair this sense 
and feeling of the marriage tie. 

The grounds on which a divorce may be ob- 
tained have been so multiplied, that few appli- 
cants can fail of success. And the knowledge 
that the marriage compact can be nullified 
pretty much at the pleasure of the parties, 



90 ETHICS FOR TIIE TIMES. 

tends, as a matter of course, to produce thought- 
less, indiscreet, and improper marriages, to en- 
courage dissatisfaction and strife after marriage, 
and so to render the home any thing but a 
place of virtuous training and happiness to the 
children, and very often to produce a final sep- 
aration or divorce of the parents. Such fami- 
lies are continual fountains of corruption and 
disorder to the country. 

So well understood is this facility of divorce 
in some of our States, that it has been often 
jocularly remarked, in the public prints, that 
the lady whose husband has gone into one of 
these States for a brief time, professedly to 
attend to a business transaction, should be 
careful how she receives him on his return, lest 
she take to her arms — not her husband. In- 
deed, the evil has become so great that some 
of the States have been compelled to disregard 
such divorces. They have been obliged to pro- 
tect their own citizens by judicially deciding 
that the plea of such a divorce, obtained abroad, 
shall, in case of a second marriage, after a return 
home, be no bar to judgment; that the of- 
fender shall, notwithstanding, be sent to the pen- 
itentiary as a bigamist. This is right, but it is 
not all that is necessary. The laws of divorce 
call for a thorough revision. They have, hith- 



ETHICS OF DIVORCE. 91 

erto, to a great extent, been framed upon the 
principle of expediency. It is time now to go 
back to the divine rule, the only true ethics, 
if we would put a stop to this swelling tide of 
corruption. 

What, then, is God's law of marriage? We 
answer, The absolute indestructibility of the 

CONTRACT, UNLESS FOR ADULTERY. The Words of 

the Divine Lawgiver are too clear and simple 
to be misunderstood by any honest reader: 
"He who made them at the beginning, made 
them male and female, and said, For this cause 
shall a man leave father and mother, and shall 
cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one 
flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but 
one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined 
together, let not man put asunder. Whoso? 
ever shall put away his wife, except it be for 
fornication, and shall marry another, commit- 
teth adultery; and whosoever marrieth her 
who is put away, doth commit adultery." 
(Matt, xix: 4-6, 9; also, Mark x: 11, 21; Luke 
xvi : 18.) 

But here a very important question may be 
asked : How may we arrive most speedily at a 
sound legislation on this momentous subject? 
We answer, let the Church, as the great con- 
servator of public morals, at once begin to act 



92 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

faithfully in the matter.* Let her discipline 
all offending members here, and refuse to marry 
again any person who has obtained a divorce 
on other than scriptural grounds. The public 
conscience would soon thus become enlightened, 
purified, and elevated, so as to demand just 
and wholesome legislation on the subject of 
divorce. And then one of the most copious 
springs of corruption, and vice, and wretch- 
edness to society would soonest and most ef- 
fectually be dried up. 

But should it be said that, even without the 

*The Genera} Assembly of the (N. S.) Presbyterian Church 
has taken the scriptural position on the subject of divorce. 

The case of a minister deposed by a Presbytery for mar- 
rying a woman divorced, but not for adultery on the part of 
the husband, was brought by appeal before the Assembly, 
and the Presbytery was sustained. The Assembly took the 
occasion to deliver the following most clear and decided ut- 
terance c 

"The General Assembly, whilst rendering this decision, 
takes occasion to call the attention of the churches under 
its care to a jtendency, manifest in some portions of the 
country, to relax the sacredness of the marriage tie. Lying, 
as the institution of marriage does, at the very foundation 
of order, purity, and prosperity in the State and in the 
Church, the Assembly can not view, without abhorrence, 
any attempt to diminish its sanctity, or extend beyond the 
warrant of the Holy Scriptures the grounds of divorce." [Di- 
gest, page 248. Rev. W. E. Moore, compiler. Philadelphia, 
1861 



ETHICS OF DIVORCE. 03 

crime of adultery, other sins, such as habitual 
drunkenness, etc., may so destroy the peace 
and corrupt the morals of the household, and, 
indeed, endanger the lives of wife and children, 
ns to render living together most injurious, 
perhaps unendurable. Let the innocent party, 
so unhappily situated, separate. This measure, 
as a last resort, has often been found most ef- 
fectual to work a thorough reformation and a 
happy reunion. 

By thus returning to the scriptural rule — 
and nothing short of this is a true ethics — we 
take the best means to render the marriage re- 
lation sacred and venerable in the eyes of the 
public, to insure though tfulness and prudence 
in those who anticipate an entrance into its 
bonds, and, what is more important, the culti- 
vation of mutual forbearance, and a kindly 
spirit and deportment, between married persons ; 
and, what is most important of all, we insure 
virtuous and happy families. The strength, 
the purity, the peace, the prosperity of the 
State, brought about by the influence of such 
families, can not be measured. 

But whatever else we may do, it is vain to 
look for such blessings to the country with- 
out a thorough ethical revision of our divorce 
laws. As these now are, they virtually hold 



94 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

out a premium to all the terrible evils we 
have alluded to, and, vastly worse, not to be 
described. 



>»?€ 



CHAPTER XV. 



CUSTOMS, ETC. 

At a public meeting, a few years since, a 
very respectable and intelligent gentleman 
spoke of the scruples with which some were 
unnecessarily troubled, and of the counsel he 
himself had recently given to a friend thus 
perplexed. He evidently considered his exam- 
ple one which it behooved all present to follow, 

His friend, it seems, hesitated about embark- 
ing in a certain public service, because some 
things of at least doubtful morality would prob- 
ably be required of him. 

The advice given him was this : " Be not con- 
cerned at all about it. They who, in authority, 
direct you, and not you, are responsible in such 
cases." 

The person who so counseled his friend was 



ETC. 95 

evidently not at all aware how false and per- 
nicious the ground was which he assumed. It 
upsets hoth law and gospel, because it implies 
that moral agency and moral responsibility 
may, under certain circumstances, at the will 
of an individual, be nullified or thrown off. 
But in what part of the Bible, or in what sound 
system of ethics, is it ever taught that we may 
sink our moral agency and responsibility, or 
shift them oft* upon others ? Our moral agency 
is, in truth, our own; it is a part of our very 
nature, and we can not get rid of it, even for a 
moment, without ceasing to be what we are. 
Hence our actions are always our own, and 
must ever remain so. Accordingly, each one 
of us must give an account for himself in the 
great day. If others would wickedly impose 
upon us wrong conduct, the} 7 have that sin to 
answer for ; and if we consent to do the evil 
enjoined by them, we also become guilty. 

It is, therefore, wrong voluntarily to place 
ourselves where we have reason to think that 
we shall be required to do evil. With what 
propriety can we pray God " not to lead us into 
temptation," when we thus willingly run into it? 

Again : If at any time an unjust law is sought 
to be imposed upon us, we must, with the 
Apostles, under similar circumstances, respect- 



96 ETHICS FOK THE TIMES. 

fully but firmly reply, " Whether it be right 
in the sight of God to hearken unto you more 
than unto God, judge ye," etc. (Acts iv: 19.) 
Consider, under these circumstances, first, 
that such a law is really no law at all — a mere 
sham, an arbitrary and wrongful human impo- 
sition, for which no government has authority 
from the great Lawgiver. On this most im- 
portant point, all the great lights of the law, 
from Sir John Fortescue, in 1630, down to Sir 
"William Blackstone and Chancellor Kent, of 
our day, are perfectly clear and decided. "No 
laws" they declare, with one consent, " no laws 
are valid if contrary to God's law, and all hu- 
man laws derive their binding authority solely 
from their divine original." 

2. You may use all proper and innocent 
means to escape the penalty of disobedience to 
such laws. (Matt, x: 23.) 

3. If you must suffer, " possess your soul in 
patience;" and not only so, but "count it all 
joy," for you may, in this way, do more to 
awaken and enlighten the public conscience 
than by all other means combined. The com- 
munity generally will be stirred up to think, 
and they will, sooner or later, see that you are 
the victim of a wicked law, and they will de- 
mand its repeal. 



ETC. 97 

4. The administration itself will speedily be 
made to feel that it was foolish policy to at- 
tempt to constrain the moral convictions of 
any, however humble, and that it is best to let 
you off as easily as possible, and trouble you 
no more. 

Was it not just so in the case of the late 
Fugitive-slave Law ? In obedience to our slave- 
holding lords, a servile administration passed 
that most wicked and unconstitutional law. 
The consequences were, good men every-where 
condemned it, the people took the alarm, and 
all who were punished for extending the hand 
of charity to the poor, panting, hungry fugitive 
from slavery were justly regarded as " persecuted 
for righteousness' sake." Hence, scarcely any 
but "lewd fellows of the baser sort" would 
have any hand in carrying out this abominable 
enactment. And so it soon became a dead let- 
ter ; still, however, an ulcer on the popular heart 
and a standing reproach upon our free country. 

It had, however, one salutary operation : it 
helped, like all the other infatuated measures 
of the slave lords, the more speedily to bring 
on the late national crisis, and thus destroy the 
villainous institution itself, to uphold and ex- 
tend which, over the whole land, was really the 
great object of the law. 
7 



98 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

And hence, suffering endured under this pre- 
tended law was not in vain. To such noble 
martyrs for truth, righteousness, and freedom 
we of the present day are greatly indebted ; and 
future ages will call these sufferers "blessed," 
while "the memory" of their persecutors "will 
rot." 

Furthermore, the principle here advocated — 
viz., that we never can voluntarily put off' our 
moral responsibility — throws light upon many 
other cases also. Take that of the traveler, 
for example. If the proprietors of a public 
conveyance will not stop their vehicle on the 
Sabbath, let the sin be theirs ; but let the trav- 
eler, if possible, leave it, and so avoid a, guilty 
complicity in this sin. Let him stop, we say, 
to engage in the duties and enjoy the sacred 
privileges of the Lord's day. He will be sure 
to have his reward even here. (1 Tim. iv : 11.) 
We might relate many instances of the most 
happy results of such obedience to God's law. 
Take but three for examples : 

1. The late able and deeply pious Jeremiah 
Everts, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, when on his frequent tours to attend 
to the business of his agency, was always wont 
to keep holy the Sabbath. If traveling in a 



ETC. 99 

public conveyance, he would leave it, when 
practicable, to enjoy the privileges of the Lord's 
day. To say nothing here of the influence of 
so good an example upon his fellow- travelers, 
he gratefully records that he found this sacred 
rest full of profit to his own soul ; and we doubt 
not that it greatly contributed to his growth 
in that spiritual wisdom and energy which so 
remarkably characterized him as a servant of 
Christ and the Church. " They that wait upon 
the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall 
mount up with wings as eagles; they shall 
run, and not be weary ; and they shall walk, 
and not faint. (Isaiah xl : 31.) 

2. A few years since, two or three travelers 
on the New York Canal, going westward, left 
the boat near a village, on Saturday, to observe 
the rest of the Sabbath. They were greatly 
refreshed by the religious privileges afforded 
them, and delighted, also, to find so many 
doors unexpectedly and kindly opened to them 
for Christian usefulness. 

The next day they proceeded on their jour- 
ney, and learned, on their arrival at Buffalo, 
that the steamboat on which they were to go 
had they not stopped to keep the rest of the 
Sabbath, had met with a calamity, resulting in 
the loss of several lives. While deeply grieved 



100 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

at the catastrophe which had befallen their 
fellow-travelers, they could not restrain their 
thanksgivings in view of the Lord's distinguish- 
ing goodness to them. " If thou turn away thy 
foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure 
on mj holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, 
the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt 
honor him, not doing thine own way, nor find- 
ing thine own pleasures, nor speaking thine 
own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in 
the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon 
the high places of the earth, and feed thee 
with the heritage of Jacob thy father : for the 
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isaiah 
lviii : 13, 14.) 

3. The writer had among his parishioners, 
several years ago, a poor but respectable me- 
chanic, who, by his daily toils, supported his 
family in tolerable comfort. He and his were 
active and exemplary church-members. 

A few years afterward, I again met this man, 
who had in the meanwhile established himself 
in the interior of the State, and was there en- 
gaged in a very profitable business, and had, 
indeed, already become quite prominent and 
influential as a citizen and a member of the 
Church. His remarkable and rapid elevation of 
circumstances was thus providentially brought 



ETHICS OF BAD COUNSELS, ETC. 101 

about. Ho left my charge because he thought 
he might better his condition by going further 
west. In Missouri he met with a party about 
to go upon a hunting expedition, who per- 
suaded him to accompany them. "When the 
Sabbath approached, he proposed to stop at 
some convenient point, and there suitably 
spend that holy day. They refused, and he 
separated himself from them to carry out his 
purpose alone. Early on the following Mon- 
day, as he was getting ready to rejoin the com- 
pany he had left, a United States surveying 
expedition arrived at the village. As they 
wanted another man, they invited him to enter 
the service, under the promise of a fair com- 
pensation. He did so. After the public work 
was accomplished, he was given, as a part of 
his reward, a tract of wild land. Immigration 
rapidly flowed in, and these lands were quickly 
disposed of at very favorable prices. The 
money thus obtained enabled him at once to 
enter advantageously into business. He soon 
rose to an enviable position of pecuniary abil- 
ity and Christian usefulness. 

Now mark, dear reader : It was by tarrying 
behind, in obedience to God's law of the Sab- 
bath, he was providentially brought into com- 
pany with the surveying party, and thus a 



102 ETHICS FOR TIIE TIMES. 

way was most unexpectedly opened before him 
in the midst of the wilderness — short, honest, 
and easy — from poverty to prosperity. "So 
that a man shall say, Yerily there is a reward 
for the righteous; verily he is a God that judg- 
eth in the earth." (Ps. lviii : 11.) 



CHAPTER XY1. 

ETHICS OF CASUALTIES. 

These casualties, as they are commonly 
called, may be divided into public and private. 

1. The first public caualties we shall here 
notice are those of war. It is well known 
that of the multitudes who perish in war, the 
greater part fall victims to the hardships and 
diseases incidental to a military life. 

But each of those, whether he died on the 
battle-field, or in hospitals, or by the wayside, 
might have lived, had it not been' for the war, 
a useful citizen and a prosperous, happy man, 
many years longer, perhaps to a ripe old age. 
His untimely death was, then, the result of 



ETHICS OP CASUALTIES. 103 

war, and, consequently, the responsibility of 
blood-guiltiness must rest somewhere. Who 
slew all these? is a solemn question. Usually 
this can be determined only by the omniscient 
Judge. He knows to whom the blood-guiti- 
ness is, in each case, justly chargeable, and it 
will appear in the last great day. 

Now, the whole history of the world has 
shown that the national guilt of war is usually 
shared by both parties. In some rare instances, 
however, the sin is nearly, perhaps altogether, 
on one side. In this latter case, the blood of 
murder rests entirely on the guilty nation or 
party, and upon each individual of that nation 
or party, according to the influence he exerted 
to bring on the war. All is naked and open 
before God, and he will not fail to execute a 
righteous judgment in each case. Some one 
must give an account for each individual who 
dies in war. The real murderers will then 
stand exposed and receive the due reward of 
their evil deeds. 

It becomes us all, therefore, here to judge 
ourselves, and avoid guilt by doing nothing to 
inflame or misdirect the public mind so as to 
lead to unnecessary war and the terrible guilt 
thereof. But particularly should men in power, 
and politicians and their miserable tools, and 



104 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

partisan editors, who selfishly endanger the 
nation's peace for their own personal or party 
interests — it behooves such, we say, to reflect 
upon the heinousness of their crime and the 
terrible responsibility to which they must at 
last be held. It was a fearful foreshadowing 
of this judgment, exhibited, as the papers re- 
port, by a mutilated soldier, not long since. 
He approached, at a railroad depot, a man 
once high in office, who had been notoriously 
among the most guilty in plunging our country 
into the horrors of the late civil war, and, hold- 
ing up the stump of his arm, the maimed sol- 
dier indignantly exclaimed, "Look at that, 

you hoary-headed old ! It is all your 

work! You must soon be called to account 
for it!" 

The same principles apply in the case of all 
other sufferers, whether bereaved families, in- 
valid soldiers, or those who have been impov- 
erished, perhaps ruined, by the war. 

2. There is another kind of casualty con- 
tinually occurring. Persons are every day in- 
jured or killed by being run over in the streets 
and highways, or by substances falling upon 
them from windows or house-tops as they are 
passing along; and — to name no more — by 
violence on public conveyances. In all such 



ETHICS OF CASUALTIES. 105 

cases, those concerned in the calamity should 
he put on trial, and made to show that they 
used all due care to prevent evil ; and, failing 
to do this, they ought to be condignly pun- 
ished. If justice were thus done, we would 
hear of but few such cases in the time to 
come. The guilt of neglecting a righteous 
judicial process must rest somewhere. In 
nearly all such cases, the whole matter is now 
usually sought to be covered over by the false 
announcement, A "horrible accident!" We 
say false, for, in truth, in most instances, the 
evil is manifestly the result of culpable care- 
lessness, often of downright recklessness of 
human life. 

3. Private casualties are so various that it is 
impossible in such a treatise to even enumer- 
ate them. Adulteration of medicines and of 
articles of food, and carelessness in putting up 
medical prescriptions, are of every-day occur- 
rence. To only one other cause of these "cas- 
ualties" will we allude. It is the pointing 
and snapping of fire-arms at others, either in 
bravado or to alarm the timid, and so too 
often wounding or, perhaps, killing them ! 
The plea in such cases always is, that they did 
not know the weapon was loaded; but they 
ought to have known that it was not. And, in- 



106 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

deed, if they were assured of the latter fact, 
still, they had no right to trifle with the feel- 
ings of others by such apparently dangerous 
conduct. Not one of these cases of private 
casualties should be passed over without ju- 
dicial investigation. Such processes of retri- 
bution are the best means of preventing them, 
and of cultivating thoughtful ness and con- 
science in the community, and so preparing the 
world for a higher, safer, and happier civiliza- 
tion. 



=**<*> 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ETHICAL RELATIONS OF CITIZENS TOWARD THE 
GOVERNMENT. 

Very many seem to regard the Government, 
to a great extent, as an unreasonably restrain- 
ing and exacting power, and, therefore, that 
its demands may be evaded as far- as we safely 
can. They can see little or no wrong in such 
conduct; indeed, they often glory in any suc- 
cess they may here attain. The various pro- 



RELATIONS TOWARD THE GOVERNMENT. 107 

cesses of Government, by which its measures 
are to be carried out, and the claims it puts 
forth upon our property for support — all these 
are disliked by such persons, and, if possible, 
escaped. Taxes, for example, of every kind, 
are odious in their eyes — little short of rob- 
bery by public .authority ; and hence their efforts 
to conceal or undervalue their property. And 
were it not for fear of the penalties of dis- 
obedience, they would seldom be found in 
courts as witnesses, or in the jury-box. 

But such views, feelings, and practices are 
all immoral and wrong; and, so far as they 
prevail, they inflict great evils on the country, 
and, if not arrested, must ultimately destroy it. 

Government is, in truth, among the greatest 
of all our earthly benefits, and yet the cheap- 
est. Who could lie down in peace at night 
were it not for the sleepless eye of Government? 
And whose life and property would be safe for 
a single day were not the strong arm of Gov- 
ernment about him? There is malignity enough 
and there is villainy enough in every community 
to render our lives miserable, and destroy every 
thing precious and sacred to us as individuals, 
and very speedily to break down the whole 
fabric of society, and bring upon the land utter 
desolation and universal moral and political 



108 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

dissolution, were it not for the fear of Govern- 
ment. Government is, therefore, under God, 
our great earthly safeguard. And yet its pro- 
tection costs us less than almost any other 
temporal good. Had we to pay the one half 
of our property to save the other, and to pro- 
tect our lives and liberty, civil and religious, 
it would be a cheap purchase. But where is 
such a price ever asked? It is, indeed, but a 
very small per cent, of our means we are obliged, 
ordinarily, to give for the guardian care of 
Government. 

It is, therefore, the duty of every citizen 
highly to appreciate and obey the Government 
of his country, cheerfully to comply with its 
demands for his services, and pay his full pro- 
portion toward its support. In giving a state- 
ment of his property for taxation, let him be 
careful to render a faithful account ; and if, at 
any time, a doubt arise in his mind, let him 
be sure to give the Government the benefit of 
it. Better that you pay too much than fall 
short. "Be subject to rulers, not only for 
wrath's sake, (that is, for fear of punishment,) 
but for conscience' sake," or a sacred regard to 
what is just and right, is, indeed, an ordinance 
of God. (Rom. xiii : 5-7.) Let it always be 
manifest, by your cheerful obedience and lib- 



RELATIONS TOWARD THE GOVERNMENT. 109 

end course hero, that you do thankfully feel 
your obligations toward Government as, under 
God, one of your greatest earthly benefactors. 
Pay due respect to all its officers, whatever 
their personal character may be, for their of- 
fice' sake, and promptly obey all their lawful 
requirements as representatives of the Gov- 
ernment. Ever to be law-abiding is an essential 
part of a true ethics. 

We would here add, that in the state of our 
beloved country at the present time, the above 
remarks are pre-eminently true, seasonable, 
and important. We have just passed success- 
fully through a most unprovoked, costly, and 
cruel civil war. The most heroic and self- 
sacrificing efforts were called for and cheer- 
fully made. The money and blood of the 
people were poured out without stint. 

But by these tremendous sacrifices we saved 
our free institutions and every thing dear to 
us as a nation. How sad would have been our 
state had the slaveholders' rebellion triumphed! 
We can conceive of no people on earth whose 
condition would be more deplorable. Irre- 
trievable ruin must have fallen upon us; or, 
had we ever recovered from our prostrate con- 
dition, it would have been only after ages of 
dreadful sacrifice and bloodshed. 



110 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

While, then, our debt of gratitude never can 
be sufficiently discharged toward those who 
nobly laid down their lives for our country, let 
us be careful most honorably to meet all our 
pecuniary engagements to those who, at the 
darkest hour, confiding in our integrity, risked, 
in many cases, their little all in loans to Gov- 
ernment, to enable it to carry the war to a 
successful issue and so save our country. 

Not to fulfill to the last farthing these ob- 
ligations, would stamp upon us, as a people, 
such a brand of infamy as never could be ef- 
faced. And yet this is just what selfish dem- 
agogues, and half-disguised traitors, and cor- 
rupt men every-where are continually threat- 
ening, in order to destroy popular confidence 
in the patriotic party that carried us safely 
through the late struggle, and in this way 
seat themselves in power. It will demand all 
the moral light and energy of the people to 
prevent such a catastrophe. But God has 
mercifully "delivered us in six troubles," and 
we doubt not, with his blessing, the final tri- 
umph of truth and righteousness in our land. 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE 111 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 

Who shall be endowed with the right of 
voting? is very generally regarded as a ques- 
tion of mere expediency. And who shall be 
permitted to exercise this right ? is also viewed 
in the same light. The idea of ethics entering 
into either question is very rarely thought of. 

But, in opposition to all this, we maintain 
that every native citizen has by birth a moral 
right, under the Constitution, to the elective 
franchise, and that they who would hinder the 
exercise of this right are bound to give good 
and sufficient reasons for this abridgment of 
liberty. 

Each human being born into the world has 
the " right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness." Hence, these are justly pronounced 
native and inalienable in the Declaration of 
Independence; and upon this ground the pos- 
sessor of these rights is entitled to use all 
powers necessary for the protection of these his 
inalienable rights. 



112 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

"We ? the people" of the United States, as 
sovereign thereof, framed and adopted the 
Constitution, which makes all public officers 
servants of the people, to be chosen directly 
or indirectly by the people, and removeable 
from office in the way prescribed by the peo- 
ple. The people are, then, clearly and exclu- 
sively sovereign; and to take this character 
from them is to revolutionize our Government, 
the great end of which, as it now exists, is to 
protect the people and every individual citizen 
in the exercise of his right to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness.* 

Now, the vote is simply the expression of 

* These celebrated and often-quoted words, so dear to every 
true American heart, are not altogether original with the 
author of the Declaration of Independence. In the Congress 
which met in Philadelphia, Sept. 5, 1774, a series of very 
able, bold, and patriotic resolutions were introduced on the 
8th of October, and in the first of the series was this ex- 
pression : " They," that is, the people, " are entitled to life, 
liberty, and property." The foundation of this title they 
declare to be " the immutable laws of nature, the principles 
of the English Constitution, and the several charters or 
compacts " of the Colonies. 

In the Congress held also in Philadelphia in 1776, Mr. 
Jefferson, as Chairman of the Committee to draft the Decla- 
ration of Independence, adopted the foregoing form of ex- 
pression, with the exception of the last word, property, and 
for this substituted the more comprehensive phrase, "pursuit 
of happiness." But, with true Anglo-Saxon brevity, almost all 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 113 

each sovereign citizen how and by whom he 
would have the Government carried on so as 
best to protect himself and his fellow-citizens. 
Hence, to deny his right to the elective fran- 
chise, and to exercise that right, is virtually to 
deny his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness. If the last is a moral right— and 
none deny this — then the first is also a moral 
right, because it is absolutely necessary — and 
our whole history shows it — in order to pro- 
tect our native and inalienable rights. Each 
one feels this to be so in his own case. 

The Southern slaveholding aristocracy early 
saw this, and hence, as quickly as possible, 
deprived the colored man in their several States 
of the right of suffrage ; and, by their corrupt- 
ing and domineering influence over the poli- 
ticians of the North, they sought, and, to a vast 
extent, successfully sought, to deprive the col- 
ored man there also of the ballot. Why? 
Just that they might secure the slavery of the 
colored man where it then existed, and finally 

our writers and speakers since have used the old Congress- 
ional form of expression : life, liberty, and property. 

It is a remarkable fact, also, that, instead of the original 
words " immutable laws of nature," Mr. Jefferson employs 
the terms, "They," the people, " are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable rights," etc. 

8 



114 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

extended it over the whole land. The ballot is 

THE GRAND QONSERVATOR OE FREEDOM ! 

Let ns suppose that the so-called Republic 
of San Marino, in Italy, is, like ours, a de- 
mocracy; that is, a Government professedly 
built upon and controlled by popular sov- 
ereignty. 

Now, suppose that there are in this little de- 
mocracy one thousand adult male citizens — all, 
of course, of equal constitutional rights — and 
that of these, six hundred disfranchised the 
remaining four hundred — would not permit 
them to vote for public officers. But it is 
manifest that, on the same ground, the four 
hundred might have disfranchised the six 
hundred. The effect, in either case, would be 
a revolution of the Government and the intro- 
duction of an aristocracy more or less limited. 

But suppose, further, that, in this same re- 
public, one citizen, on the same ground upon 
which the six hundred or the four hundred 
had acted, were to disfranchise all his fellow- 
citizens, and claim to himself the right of solely 
exercising the elective franchise. The aristoc- 
racy would, in this case, become a monarchy, 
and this one man might make himself king. 
He, and not the people, as in a democracy, or 
some four or six hundred of the people, as in 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 115 

an aristocracy — he alone would be sovereign, 
and the fountain of all power and honor in the 
State. All would be his subjects, and all the 
political rights they exercised merely privi- 
leges granted by him at his sovereign pleasure. 

Popular sovereignty is, then, the vital prin- 
ciple of a true democracy ; and popular sov- 
ereignty always demands for its exercise uni- 
versal suffrage ; it can rightly be put forth in 
no other way. Take away universal suffrage, 
and the Government is merely a democracy in 
name, or, at the best — as ours is — an imperfect 
democracy. Sovereignty must reside in the 
whole people, or in a part, or in one man. The 
first is a democracy, the second an aristocracy, 
and the last a monarchy, or kingly government. 

From the foregoing views, it is clear, as a 
fact, that all existing governments, and all that 
ever have existed, are composite; that is, they 
all have in them these three elements: the 
Democratic, the aristocratic, and the kingly, 
or, at least, two of these, mingled up in various 
proportions. Russia and France, for example, 
have in them more of the royal element ; Aus- 
tria, more of the aristocratic element ; and 
England has a large infusion of the democratic 
element. It is a fact, also, that the United 
States was the first humanly-devised Govern- 



116 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

merit, professedly built exclusively upon the 
democratic element — a pure democracy. And 
hence the continued and rapid tendency of our 
i country has been toward universal suffrage, or 
the practical realization of our theory of a true 
democracy. England has for ages been going 
in the same direction. Indeed, it is impossible 
to read the history of the Christian nations 
generally without being convinced that they 
are all borne along upon the same popular 
current, and must, sooner or later, become 
thoroughly democratic in spirit and form. 

If it here be asked, How long before this 
grand popular consummation can be effected ? 
we answer, As soon as the whole body of the 
people become so enlightened, purified, and 
elevated as to be capable of working out and 
sustaining such perfectly free governments. 
To such a people, a pure democracy is the 
greatest earthly blessing; but to a people not 
thus prepared, the sorest curse that could be 
inflicted upon them would be a democratic 
government. Indeed, if brought to them by 
others, they would reject it, or, at least, they 
would not carry it out, but would' return to 
their old form of government, or sink into an- 
archy, and from that emerge, sooner or later, 
into a military despotism. 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 117 

And if it be asked, How shall a people be 
prepared for truly democratic institutions? we 
unhesitatingly reply, that only Christianity can 
so educate and lift them up to that position of vir- 
tuous intelligence which will qualify them for a 
perfectly free government, a pure democracy. 

Just, therefore, as any people become really 
Christian — that is, Christian in the Bible sense 
of the term — will they become free and remain 
so. Every other plan to build up free institu- 
tions must prove a failure. This was sadly 
verified in the various forms of republican 
government devised and put in operation in 
France, and in other countries under her con- 
trol, between the overthrow of the throne of 
Louis XVI and the establishment of the em- 
pire by Napoleon I. The secret of their down- 
fall was simply this : the people were not Chris- 
tian enough to appreciate and sustain a true 
democracy or perfectly free institutions. So, 
also, has the whole history of the South Amer- 
ican republics taught us the same lesson. The 
Gospel, in its purity, must be widely under- 
stood, revered, and obeyed before a people can 
intelligently appreciate and uphold a true de- 
mocracy. 

In the light of the foregoing remarks, it will 
be seen that we, as a people, are now passing 



118 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

through the most perilous period of our his- 
tory. Few intelligent men doubted the result 
of the late civil war. That the superior intel- 
ligence and strength, moral and physical, of 
the loyal North would finally prevail in the 
contest, was as certain as any human event 
could be. But it was feared that the energy 
and other qualities which could carry us suc- 
cessfully through the war, might not be com- 
petent to a safe reconstruction. This is now 
manifestly the fact. 

Have we, then, sufficient popular intelli- 
gence, wisdom, and virtue to purge out all the 
aristocratic hindrances that grew up and were 
associated with the system of slavery, and by 
it diffused, more or less, over the whole land, 
and so build up for ourselves now a true de- 
mocracy — a government perfectly free, entirely 
purified from those corruptions which had well- 
nigh ruined us? The sham Democracy, as a 
party, is indeed dead. But did it not, during 
its long reign, so demoralize aud debase the 
popular mind as to render it incompetent to 
reconstruct a true republic ? Some, too, plainly 
fear that this is our sad case, and that the 
patriotic efforts and fearful sacrifices of the 
late war will all be in vain. But a calm and 
comprehensive survey of the past and present 



THE ETniCS OF SUFFRAGE. 119 

condition of our country must, we believe, in- 
spire us with a good hope. The signs of the 
times are, upon the whole, full of encourage- 
ment. Has there not been progress in the 
right direction, and most extraordinary prog- 
ress, too, during the last six years ? Who can 
deny this ? Who could have thought, in 1860, 
that in five years the giant slavery would be 
prostrated, and its monstrous, godless progeny, 
the sham Democracy, be dashed in pieces? 
After such wonderful blessings of Providence 
upon the efforts of Christian patriotism, what 
good is there we may not now expect ? The 
day is brightening before us, and the sun, we 
feel assured, will soon shine upon us a per- 
fectly free people, the land of equal rights, of 
universal suffrage, a true democracy. 

Let, then, those who would, in any case, 
seek to deprive any citizen of the ballot, give a 
good and sufficient reason for it. The burden 
of proof justly and manifestly rests on them, 
and not on the individual whom they seek to 
degrade and oppress. 

Can there, then, be a valid reason for deny- 
ing to any one the exercise of a right which, 
as a citizen under the Constitution, is clearly 
recognized in him as a means to protect his 
native and inalienable rights? This is ccrtainlv 



120 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

one of the gravest questions, and it is just as 
truly moral in its character as is the right of 
each one of us to life, liberty, and property. 
And it is just as immoral to deprive us of the 
exercise of the right without a just cause, as to 
take away our life, liberty, or property under 
similar circumstances. 

Can there, then — we repeat the question — be 
a valid reason for depriving any citizen of the 
right to vote ? We reply that we know noth- 
ing to justify this but the great public as well 
as private right of self-defense. Ordinarily, it 
would be immoral, a great crime, in any one to 
assail the life, liberty, or property of another; 
but if that other has first attempted my life, 
liberty, or happiness, may I not use all means 
necessary to my defense, even if the use of 
these end in the destruction of the assailant's 
rights? So the country, also, like each indi- 
vidual, has the right of self-defense. It may 
rightfully and lawfully protect itself. 

Hence, if it appear that any one is not com- 
petent to the exercise of the elective franchise, 
either because he has not the knowledge and 
capacity required for the conduct of the ordi- 
nary business of life, or because he has been 
convicted of such criminal developments of 
character as render it imprudent and wrong to 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 121 

trust him, in either case, we say, the right to 
exercise the suffrage may be denied to him. 

Hence, minors, insane persons, and criminals 
are universally prevented from voting. The 
safety of the country demands this. His right 
as a citizen to the elective franchise is not de- 
nied; but so long as the safety of the country 
requires it, he is rightfully and lawfully pro- 
hibited the exercise of it. Traitors have, by 
their own acts, forfeited all rights under the 
Constitution (except the right to be hanged). 
They can justly and legally claim nothing ; and 
should they ever be pardoned and restored to 
those rights, it is merely an act of mercy and 
grace — an act, be it ever remembered, only to 
be extended to such when it can be done with 
safety to the country. 

But what of the ease of foreigners is it 
morally right for us to do? Let us consider 
that such persons usually come to us because, 
under the oppressive aristocracies and ecclesi- 
astical establishments of other lands, the ex- 
ercise of their natural and inalienable rights 
are generally, and grievously, and hopelessly 
abridged. It is clearly, therefore, our duty to 
take these strangers by the hand, as children 
of our common Father in heaven, and give 
them, as speedily as we safely can, the privi- 



122 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

lege of exercising all the rights of citizenship. 
This is what a sound ethics demands of us; 
and it is clearly enjoined upon us by the Word 
of God. (Exodus xii : 49. Levit. xix : 33, 34. 
Deut. x : 19.) 

But what of females ? Just the same great 
moral principles should govern us here. To 
shrink back in this case, and especially to en- 
deavor to pour contempt and ridicule upon the 
whole, subject, as shallow-pated lords of crea- 
tion, and selfish, crafty politicians usually do, 
is both unmanly and immoral. Is it not a 
most patent fact that multitudes of American 
women are far better qualified to exercise the 
right of suffrage — to which, as citizens, they 
are justly entitled — than multitudes of the 
other sex who are permitted to vote? Who 
can deny this? And if we have not greatly 
misunderstood the signs of the times, the day 
is rapidly coming when the rights of women 
to exercise the ballot — formerly conceded and 
used in some of the States — will be universally 
allowed. 

Shall we, then, put off this day till the most 
pressing exigencies of the nation demand it — 
till it be terribly demonstrated (as when the 
Emancipation Proclamation was issued) that 
we must die, as a people, through rampant 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 123 

corruption and disloyalty, which we can not 
overcome unless we are willing to do justice 
and yield their rights to one-half of our fellow- 
citizens, and that the purer part, whom we have 
hitherto disfranchised ? How much better, more 
manly, honorable, reasonable, just, to do this 
thing at once, and cordially, because it is right, 
rather than be driven into it by the stern but 
wise and righteous dealings of Providence. 
In one way or the other it will surely be 
brought about. 

Again: no distinction of caste should ever 
be allowed among us. Let not the rich, for 
example, or the learned, or those high in po- 
sition be admitted to the elective franchise, 
and all others denied. Let no mere place of 
nativity, or shade of color — things not in the 
power of the individual to control, and not in 
themselves immoral or injurious to the coun- 
try — let none of these things shut out any 
from the polls. 

Universal suffrage is with us a constitu- 
tional and moral right, and hence we are 
bound to come up to it as fast as we safely 
can. If we deny this, what other principle 
shall we adopt? If any one class claim the 
right to exclude another, where shall we stop ? 
Shall we not be continually biting and devour- 



124 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

ing one another ? The excluded will be sure 
to feel that they have been robbed and out- 
raged, and be ever ready to retaliate. Thus 
our country must be in continual unrest — a prey 
to contending factions; and, sooner or later, 
must we in this way be destroyed. 

This has so clearly appeared in our past his- 
tory, that we have been almost uniformly mov- 
ing onward toward universal suffrage as the only 
safe policy. For us this cosummation can not 
be much longer delayed. No people can long 
retard the logical results of a great principle 
fundamentally ingrafted into their political 
system. Universal suffrage is the necessary se- 
quence of popular sovereignty. It is both 
morally right and politically expedient. 

But the particular question upon this sub- 
ject about which the country is most agitated 
at present is, the case of the four millions 
lately slaves, but now freedmen. Ought they 
to be allowed the exercise of the right of suf- 
frage ? We say exercise, for the right is already 
theirs as recognized native-born citizens of the 
United States. 

Let those who deny these freedmen the ex- 
ercise of this right give a good reason. We 
have never heard, or read even, a respectable 
attempt at this. But how to skulk the ques- 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 125 

tion has really been the one aim of objectors. 
Is ignorance to stand in the way of these 
freedmen? Then, unquestionably, the great mass 
of the Southern people ought to be excluded ; 
for they are not only ignorant, but fearfully 
depraved and most malignantly disloyal. The 
influence of slavery, it is well known, con- 
tinually increased the darkness, poverty, moral 
and social degradation, and wretchedness of the 
"poor white trash" as they were contemptu- 
ously called, even by the slaves. Their ig- 
norance appeared deplorable even in the cen- 
sus returns, though these, as is well known, 
covered up, as far as possible, the facts of the 
case, so disgraceful to the South. But the mil- 
itary reports, during the late war, showing 
how comparatively few of the rebel prisoners 
could read or write, surprised even those who 
already were aware of the statistical frauds 
which had been practiced. 

The indigence of the great mass of the peo- 
ple of the slave States, as well as their con- 
tempt and dislike of all industrial pursuits, 
were also well known. 

But the war disclosed one other feature of 
the Southern people that horrified not only the 
North, but the whole civilized world. We 
mean their fiendlike ferocity, so commonly 



126 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

manifested; and especially in their treatment 
of Union prisoners. It went beyond any thing 
ever witnessed on earth before. It could be 
matched nowhere short of the infernal pit. 

Now, look at the case of the late slave at the 
South. His condition compelled him to be 
temperate, industrious, economical; and not 
only so, but tended to give him habits of ob- 
servation, and serious reflection, and remark- 
able shrewdness. He was driven, also, by the 
daily hardships and sufferings of his lot, to 
look above for support, guidance, and comfort. 
It is owing, doubtless, to this long and hard 
training, in worse than Egyptian bondage, 
that the freedmen now manifest such an eager- 
ness and aptness to learn, such readiness to 
labor for any thing like fair wages, and, 
above all, so quick a sensibility to the touches 
of the Gospel. All the letters of our soldiers 
and the reports of the army chaplains, and of 
those enlightened and benevolent Christian 
men and women who, since the war, have 
gone South to labor for the instruction and 
elevation of the freedmen, and the people gen- 
erally — all these, we say, testify to -most pleas- 
ing and promising facts on this subject. We 
need scarcely add that these freedmen are all 
most intensely loyaL 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 127 

Are not, then, a people so trained, or, as we 
may, with peculiar propriety, say, educated, 
vastly better qualified at this moment to ex- 
ercise the right of suffrage than the ignorant, 
lazy, depraved, malignant white rebels? To 
grant this most important right to multitudes 
of such white men, and withhold it from the 
loyal colored man, would not this argue that 
terrible moral infatuation which is the sure 
precursor of a nation's ruin ? 

But what epithets are strong enough to de- 
scribe the meanness and the villainy of putting 
the bayonet into the hands of a man in th e day of 
our country's peril, and then, when the victory 
is achieved, withholding the ballot from him ! 
Over aud over again have we pledged ourselves 
to give them the rights of freedmen ; and 
shall we now most ingeniously and wickedly 
argue and plan to avoid the fulfillment of 
these most solemn engagements ? Has not the 
whole history of our country shown that the 
safest, surest way to secure the rights of free- 
men, is to put the ballot in their hands. With 
this they can peaceably, cheaply, and most 
effectually protect themselves. This would 
speedily convert their former oppressors into 
apparent, and in many cases, it is to be hoped, 
into real friends. 



128 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

If it be said — as, indeed, it has been — that 
unprincipled whites would keep the colored 
voters, notwithstanding their legal right, from 
the polls, the remedy here is easy and per- 
fectly sure. Let no member elect to Con- 
gress from the late slave States be permitted 
to take his seat if evidence of such fraud or 
violence appear; and it will be sure to appear 
if it existed. The very candidate himself 
would be careful to prevent such outrages at the 
election, if he knew that it would be certain to 
procure his rejection in the National Congress. 

Let us learn from his discussion not — as is 
almost universally done — to talk about the ex- 
pediency of giving the right of suffrage to some 
and withholding it from others; for it is not 
a question of expediency at all. "We are con- 
stitutionally and morally bound to recognize 
this right in all our fellow-citizens. And sore 
will be the evils we shall be sure to bring 
upon our country if, instead of manfully stand- 
ing up for this great constitutional and moral 
right of all our fellow-citizens, we cunningly, 
as w T e flatter ourselves, but, in truth, foolishly 
and basely, compromise it away to serve the 
interests of a political party, and cheat our 
loyal freedmen by leaving the question to the 
legislatures of the late rebel States. This 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 120 

would be, emphatically, the folly of giving up 
the sheep to the guardianship of the wolves. 
But this is just the sin to which we are now 
tempted, and it is one of the greatest dan- 
gers of reconstruction to which we are now 
exposed. Conscience, self-interest, patriotism 
alike lift up the voice of warning here. Let 
us give heed, and not madly press on to 
the pit.* 

* It is painful to add that, since the above chapter was 
written, we have stepped into the very pit there alluded to. 
The most important and solemn question, then, before Con- 
gress, has been referred to the States, rebel and loyal alike. 
It is left to them to disfranchise whom they please. 

Had this been a mere law, there might have been some 
shadow of excuse for it, in the fact that many suppose that it 
is now constitutionally a State right. We need not discuss 
this point here, because it is a constitutional amendment, not a 
law, that is now proposed. 

It manifestly behooved Congress, then, to look first simply 
at what was the true and the right, for these alone are sure, 
and safe, and eternal ; and then to what the minor interests 
of the country might require. Had they done this, it is evi- 
dent that loyal, sovereign citizens all over the land, standing 
politically on an exact level, and equally possessing natural 
and inalienable rights, it was the business of Congress to 
make sure to all such these rights, if, indeed, there has been 
any well-grounded doubts on the subject. Certainly, the 
peace of the country, confessedly so important, can never be 
secure till this justice is done. 

We verily believe that, if Congress had had less fear of 
traitors, North and South, and more generous confidence in 

9 



130 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

Let us learn, also, that though the safety of 
our country may render it expedient to deny 
the exercise of this great right to some, at least 
for a time, yet in this case it is our duty to 
give reasons showing the rightfulness of this 
temporary restraint. 

But to lose sight of ethics, and to reduce 
every question and measure to a mere expe- 
diency, is the besetting sin of statesmen and 
politicians, and the rock on which multitudes 
of them have split, and too often, also, unhap- 
pily wrecked their country. Let us be sure, 
first, that we are morally right, then we may 

the intelligence, integrity, and patriotism of the people, and 
especially a supreme regard to the true and the right, they 
never could have given in to such an expedient, apparently 
so politic and fair, but really so unwise and unjust. 

Oh, that Congress had listened to the warning voice of 
Mr. Stevens, and other enlightened, honest, brave patriots ! 
Should our beloved country escape a righteous retribution of 
Providence for this unwise, bad measure, it will be through 
the mere mercy of God. Such an expedient can do us no good, 
but much harm every way. If the country comes out safely 
from the great contest before us, it will be because the ex- 
treme folly and wickedness, now so shockingly manifest in 
traitors North and South, will arouse a loyal people to such a 
sense of their danger, that they will determine first to crush 
down the combined disloyal elements, about to be represented 
in the Johnson Philadelphia Convention, as the greatest of two 
evils, and then, at their leisure, to sift out the politically and 
morally weak among the professed friends of the Union. 



THE ETHICS OF SUFFRAGE. 131 

properly bring in arguments and motives from 
a sound expediency. 

Finally, let us never forget that the great 
end of the Constitution being to protect every 
citizen in the exercise of his native aud in- 
alienable rights, the ethical element most 
largely enters into the relation between the 
Government and each citizen. The Govern- 
ment is not only politically but morally bound 
to protect the rights of the citizen, and the 
citizen is both politically and morally bound 
to support the Government in all its constitu- 
tional measures. 

Now, the elective franchise being clearly the 
grand means by which each citizen may make 
his sovereign power and all his rights seen and 
felt, to deprive him of the exercise of this 
right is most unjustly to prevent him from 
doing what he ought to do to preserve his 
native and inalienable rights, and those of his 
fellow-citizens. 

In a word, the citizen ought — that is, he is 
morally bound, as a partner in the national sov- 
ereignty — to uphold the Government in all its 
legitimate acts; and the Government ought — 
that is, it is morally bound, as the grand con- 
servator of the country — to see to it that every 
citizen bave the opportunity, safely and with- 



132 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

out molestation, to exercise his right of suf- 
frage. Let us, then, never forget that the re- 
lation between the Government and the citizen 
is not merely political, but always, and under 
all circumstances, pre-eminently ethical.* 



* In the light of the above principles, it is manifest that no 
public officer under our Government has a right to form and 
be guided by " a policy" or system of administrative action. 

In Russia or Austria, or any other despotism, under which, 
of course, the people are merely subjects, the Emperor has the 
right, as sovereign, to devise his own course of government, 
and carry it out. 

But with us the people are sovereign, and all officers, from 
the President down, are simply their agents or servants, 
bound to obey their will or resign. To talk about "a policy " 
of the President, or his Cabinet, or of the Congress, is im- 
proper and absurd. The only question is, What is the will 
of the people? and then every officer in his place is bound 
faithfully to execute it or quit his place. And no officer 
among us can be honestly ignorant of the voice of the people. 
In our present difficult and dangerous position, it is acknowl- 
edged on all hands that the Chief Executive is going directly 
against the minds of the people. He was elected to pursue a 
certain, well-defined course, and has now arrayed himself 
in direct opposition to the people who chose him. This is polit- 
ically a blunder and ethically a crime. 



ETHICS OF SOVEREIGNTY. 133 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ETHICS OF SOVEREIGNTY. 

In a late work, by a distinguished American 
author, the doctrine of popular sovereignty is 
stigmatized as atheistic. This we regard as a 
great and most injurious error. 

Neither monarchy, aristocracy, nor democ- 
racy (or a government based on popular sov- 
ereignty) is in itself atheistic. Each may rest 
on a true ethical base ; that is, it may acknowl- 
edge the absolute or perfect sovereignty of 
God, and the universal and immutable obliga- 
tion of his law. And just so far as it does 
this honestly and consistently, it vindicates its 
divine right. It claims sovereignty only as 
resting and dependent upon God's sovereignty, 
and yields obedience to his law as the true 
ethics. 

Indeed, the whole moral truth here may be 
put in a nutshell. Government is of God; it is 
a divine ordinance ; and hence no moral crea- 
ture ought to be without government, or out- 
side of its rightful jurisdiction; but the form 



134 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

is of man, and in choosing this and carrying it 
out, he ought to acknowledge God's supreme 
authority at every step. But which of the 
three aforementioned forms of goverment is 
best for their welfare, in their circumstances, is 
for each people to judge, under a solemn sense 
of their accountability to Almighty God, the 
Supreme Arbiter of the universe. We of the 
United States have decided in favor of a de- 
mocracy (or a government resting exclusively 
on popular sovereignty); but we are, notwith- 
standing, a Christian and not a heathen, much 
less an atheistic people. 

Our particular form of government the writer 
believes to rest most largely on an ethical basis, 
and is most conducive, under Divine Provi- 
dence, to popular moral development and hap- 
piness. This is the secret of the unparalleled 
advance of our country in education, religion, 
wealth, and every thing which constitutes na- 
tional power, welfare, and glory. 

Our great hindrance hitherto has been slav- 
ery, a disastrous element most unwisely and 
wrongfully admitted into the system for, as 
was supposed by the compromisers, a short 
time ; but, though now cast out mainly through 
the infatuation of its adherents, the struggle cost 
us a fearful sacrifice of blood and treasure. 



ETUICS OF SOVEREIGNTY. 135 

We suppose that the distinguished author 
alluded to in the beginning of this chapter had 
in his mind, when he branded popular sover- 
eignty as atheistic, the party which lately was 
the dominant power in the land. But this 
sham Democracy was altogether alien in spirit 
and character to popular sovereignty, and a 
standing reproach upon it. It was the mon- 
strous spawn of slavery, and slavery was its 
strength and animus, daily more and more so, 
throughout its whole existence. That such a 
party should become more and more atheistic 
in its developments was just what might have 
been expected, and very many wise and patri- 
otic men among us long saw this and often 
warned us against it. Thank God ! the party 
of shams is now rotted down in its own cor- 
ruptions. But let not a true democracy, the 
constitutional Government of the United States, 
be made the scape-goat to bear the iniquities 
of the most villainous political swindle that 
ever cursed any people. 



136 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES, 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE ETHICS OP POPULAR EDUCATION. 

In a monarchy it is felt to be of the highest 
importance to have the heir of the throne 
suitably educated. This is reasonable and 
right, because the destiny of the people, for 
weal or for woe, must ever largely depend upon 
the character of the sovereign. 

Now, among us the people are sovereign ; 
hence our Government can not be sustained if 
the people are ignorant and vicious. The mis- 
rule and the misery of such a dominating 
power will be sure, after a longer or shorter 
period of disastrous anarchy, to lead us to a 
military despotism. From this we may grad- 
ually emerge after a lapse of ages of oppression 
and suffering, into a constitutional monarchy, 
under which much of substantial liberty might 
again be enjoyed. 

If, then, we prize our free institutions, and 
believe these are the best possible to make us 
a great, prosperous, and happy people, blessed 



ETHICS OF POPULAR EDUCATION. 137 

ourselves, and a blessing* to all other nations, 
is it not merely our true policy, but our duty, 
suitably to educate the whole mass of our peo- 
ple ? Are we not morally bound to give all 
that is necessary of our money, our time, and 
our influence generally, to maintain educational 
institutions all over the land, from the common 
school and high school up to the university? 
Let us ever feel it a part of our American 
ethics to pay our taxes for schools cheerfully, 
and to give liberally, and labor heartily where- 
ever we can in this great national work. 

An enlightened, virtuous republic can not 
perish. It will, under God's blessing, live and 
prosper, and become more and more a whole- 
some and inspiring example to all other people. 
And has not the late terrible crisis through 
which we have passed demonstrated that a 
free, popular government can put forth efforts 
and make sacrifices which no monarchy or 
aristocracy ever has or could exhibit ? What 
could be more sublime and heart-inspiring than 
the example of our loyal States, in the midst 
of a most unprovoked, atrocious, and gigantic 
rebellion? How forbearing and yet firm, how 
merciful and yet persistent, how enduring and 
lavish of treasure and blood was the free North 
in her protracted struggles, not only with the 



138 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

slave States, but with nearly the whole world 
against her ! History exhibits no other ex- 
ample of a patriotism so wise, generous, heroic. 
And the results have struck aghast the corrupt 
monarchies and aristocracies of Europe, who 
did all they dared to encourage our wicked as- 
sailants, with the base expectation, each one, of 
sharing in the plunder of our wrecked Repub- 
lic. But it is pitiable now to see their manifest 
readiness to listen to our demands of justice, 
while they themselves are at this moment 
agitated, terrified, and tottering to their fall. 
May a wise and benign Providence overrule 
the terrible convulsions with which they are now 
shaken, to the speedy deliverance of the long 
and cruelly oppressed masses among them ! 

If, then, we love our country and our fellow- 
men, and desire the elevation and happiness of 
the whole human family, let the cause of uni- 
versal education be much in our hearts. To 
contribute and labor here is one of our great 
duties as citizens. The free States have always 
felt this, and have already accomplished much. 
But at the South, owing to slavery, the igno- 
rance, poverty, immorality, and consequent deg- 
radation of the people are deplorable, almost 
beyond belief. They have really never been Jit 
for citizenship in a republic, and have been a 



ETHICS OF POrULAR EDUCATION. 139 

continual source of universal disquiet and cor- 
ruptipn — a blight upon the prosperity and a 
blot upon the character of our country. 

But how bright the prospect before the South, 
if her people duly improve their deliverance 
from the curse of slavery. We say their deliv- 
erance; for, in the righteous retributions of 
Providence, the oppressor himself must ever, 
by a necessary reaction, suffer a larger portion 
of the woes he inflicts on others, and these 
will frightfully increase upon him till he repent 
or be overwhelmed in remediless ruin. Let 
the South learn lessons of wisdom, peace, and 
honest and honorable industry in the dreadful 
calamities she brought upon herself, and not 
become still more infatuated by the mad ^pol- 
icy " of her selfish, ambitious, pretended friends. 

It is encouraging to think that our common 
schools at the North are continually improving. 
But they are yet far from being perfect. Mul- 
titudes are still outside of their beneficent 
influence, and those within might and ought 
to be much more benefited. Ought not the 
great aim of our school system be simply to 
furnish to all the children of the land the ele- 
mentary branches of English education — read- 
ing, writing, arithmetic, and geography ? But 
have \vc not lost sight of this in our endeavors 



140 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

to establish high schools, and similar costly insti- 
tutions for instruction in the higher branches, 
called for in the learned professions ? Let 
i those who desire, and are able to pay for such 
education, provide it for their children; but let 
not the people's money, the earnings of hard- 
handed labor, be spent to provide a few such 
schools for the more favored classes of society, 
which earnings, judiciously laid out, would 
greatly increase the number of common schools, 
and furnish a good elementary education to 
all the children of the people. 

One of the speediest and most effectual ways 
to improve our schools, is to secure to the 
teachers a liberal compensation and a highly 
respectable position in society. If this be done, 
we shall never lack able, upright, and accom- 
plished teachers. 

But let us, above all things, bear this in 
mind : that such a system of education as we 
need can never be established, and sustained, 
and perfected among us, unless the light and 
the spirit of a true Christianity be largely 
infused into all our educational plans and pro- 
ceedings. 



ETHICAL CLAIMS ON THE BODY POLITIC. 141 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ETHICAL CLAIMS ON THE BODY POLITIC. 

By the body politic, we mean the people and 
rulers, as organized for government. Upon these, 
as a body, ethics has certain claims, to which 
we wish, very briefly, to call the reader's at- 
tention. 

It is usual to make a distinction between sin 
and crime. By the former is meant a " trans- 
gression of God's law," and by the latter, a vio- 
lation of the law of the State. This distinc- 
tion is convenient and important. But it must 
ever be borne in mind that there are few crimes 
which do not involve sin, and, consequently, 
crime is to be avoided, not merely for wrath's 
sake, (or fear of the civil ruler,) but for con- 
science' sake also, because we not only sin 
against God's commandment to obey rulers, 
but because nearly all crimes are sinful in their 
nature. Indeed, were our legislation perfect, 
all sin against human rights would be forbidden 
as crime; and just as we improve our legisla- 



142 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

tion will we come nearer and nearer to onr 
whole duty toward God and toward man. 

But legislation, even under the best human 
government, is as yet far short of " the perfect 
law ;" so much so as occasionally to produce a 
terrible jar to the moral sense of the commu- 
nity. Things are done which the law of the 
land does not call crime and punish, but which 
so outrage conscience and the rights of men 
that great indignation is excited, and thi3 
aroused state of feeling too often leads to 
vengeful action. In other words, where the law 
of the land fails to protect from injury, or to 
give satisfaction for it — that is, fails to do jus- 
tice — what Lord Bacon most expressively calls 
"wild justice" is too apt to follow. Injured 
persons and a sympathizing community take 
the matter in their own hands, and visit retrib- 
utive justice upon the guilty party. Hence, 
sudden and violent outbreaks of aggrieved 
individuals, and the action of vigilance com- 
mittees, regulators, etc. 

But this "wild justice" though it may inflict 
upon criminals, who would otherwise escape, 
what they have richly merited, yet it is full of 
danger. It must, if not properly prevented — 
that is by removing occasions for it — too often 
lead to outrages upon innocent persons, to the 



ETHICAL CLAIMS ON THE BODY POLITIC. 143 

destruction of legitimate government, and finally 
to a frightful anarchy and universal ruin. 

The best remedy for this, as we have just 
hinted, is to make the laws of the land as perfect 
as possible, so as to protect against every vio- 
lation of right, and promptly and condignly 
punish every act of evil-doing. When this is 
the case, there will be no inducement nor ex- 
cuse for individual or social violence, and the 
community will be satisfied. 

We may mention here some examples of de- 
fective legislation. Drunkenness, and the dread- 
ful consequences to families and the commu- 
nity generally which are sure to follow it, are 
not at all adequately provided against and pun- 
ished by law. 

Breaches of trust are continually occurring, 
to the great injury of individuals and the pub- 
lic, and that almost with impunity. 

The fraudulent transfer of property is very 
imperfectly restrained and rarely punished. 
Hence, glaring instances of this so often occur. 
The bankrupt, riding in his carriage, supercil- 
lionsly looks down upon the foot-passenger 
whom he has reduced to want by his knavery. 

But the most deplorable consequences of 
legislative deficiencies is seen in the case of 
seduction. This is a crime of so deep a dye, 



144 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

and so grievous in its results to individuals, 
to families, and to society, that, in many in- 
stances, under the Mosaic Law, it was punished 
by death; and in some other nations, ancient 
and modern, the same penalty was visited upon 
the offender here. 

Terrible consequences of this crime are almost 
every day reported in our country. At times 
a frenzied brother shoots down like a dog the 
seducer of his sister; the father that of his 
daughter ; and the husband takes bloody ven- 
geance upon the ruthless destroyer of his do- 
mestic peace. 

While every enlightened and good man will 
look with sorrow upon these outbreaks, and 
condemn them, he can not but feel that the 
guilty one has been met with a righteous retri- 
bution. And as it is the nature of wrong to 
propagate itself, so these instances of "wild 
justice" almost always lead courts and juries 
to violate their oaths of office to decide accord- 
ing to law, by letting the offender off upon the 
alleged but often illy-sustained plea of insan- 
ity, or on some other still less warranted 
ground. This is now so common, that no one 
dreams that a jury will convict in such a case. 
But, to say nothing here of the danger of the 
innocent falling victims in this way to a blind 



ETHICAL CLAIMS ON THE BODY POLITIC. 145 

rage, the effect is disastrous upon the public 
mind and the morals of the community. We 
ought to have laws which hold out adequate 
protection and condign punishment in every 
such case. 

And why have we not such laws? Perhaps 
the best answer may be found in the witty but 
shrewd and truthful distich of the poet: 

" No rogue ere felt the halter draw 
With good opinion of the law." 

Legislators, unless pure and upright men 
themselves, will always be apt unduly to sym- 
pathize with offenders here ; and not only so, 
but, by an instinctive presentiment, will they 
be disposed to shrink back from enacting a law 
which some day ma} 7 be brought to bear hardly 
upon themselves. A case in point occurred 
some years since in a neighboring State. The 
country was horrified by a most heartless case 
of seduction and the bloody vengeance that 
followed. The Legislature was then in session. 
The members felt compelled to do something 
to meet the outraged feelings of the community. 
Accordingly they took a few steps toward a 
righteous law ; but delayed and delayed, till the 
popular excitement somewhat subsided, and 
then quietly dropped the whole matter, or, at 
10 



146 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

the most, adopted a few miserably lame amend- 
ments to the existing very imperfect legislation. 
And this has generally been the case. 

Where does the guilt of these crimes, and 
the dreadful outbreaks they occasion, mainly 
rest? Chiefly, we reply, upon the body politic. 
A sound ethics demands of every body politic 
here the enactment and the execution of right - 
eous laws ; and if the people insist upon such 
laws, they will be sure to have them. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ETHICAL CLAIMS UPON THE CHURCH. 

The Church, and each member thereof, is as 
" a city set upon a hill." Their profession neces- 
sarily makes them conspicuous, and draws all 
eyes upon them. Their example must, there- 
fore, be deeply and widely felt. It may be 
most mischievous, or full of richest blessings to 
the world. 

The Church has the pure and perfect law of 
God in her hands, and professedly makes it 
" the man of her counsel." Hence, she ought 



ETHICAL CLAIMS UPON THE CHURCH. 147 

to be, and to show herself, the great conserv- 
ator of the morals of the world, not only by 
her teachings, but by her example of " what- 
soever is pure, lovely, and of good report." 
Unless the Church is such, she becomes as 
"salt that has lost its savor; thenceforth good 
for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden 
under foot of men." (Matt, v : 13.) 

Let the pulpit, while clearly and steadily 
holding up the pure and perfect law of God 
and the great doctrines of grace, so that each 
hearer may see what the divine standard is, 
and what that glorious hope is which is set 
before him in the Gospel; but let the pulpit 
also carefully and fearlessly bring the law and 
Gospel to bear upon the whole walk and char- 
acter of men, to show them what manner of 
persons they ought to be in all holy conduct 
and godliness ; that is, what living, bright ex- 
amples they ought to be in all their relations, 
domestic, civil, and political, of a true .ethics. 
But to do this demands much patient study 
and great faithfulness on the part of the min- 
ister, and the cordial support of the members. 

Let the discipline of the Church, also, be 
faithfully maintained. It is a great mistake 
to estimate the strength and prosperity of a 
Church by the number, or wealth, or high so- 



148 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

cial position of her members. Holiness — that is, 
Christian morality, or "obedience to the truth" — 
is the real power of a Church and the measure 
of her success. Better have a handful of con- 
sistent, earnest, exemplary members than an 
overflowing communion of heartless, worldly- 
minded professors. Every such professor only 
increases the weakness of the Church, brings 
dishonor upon her character, and lessens her 
good influence upon the world. 

Let all Church councils and judicatories, as 
well as individual ministers and members of 
Churches, throw their influence heartily into 
the scale in favor of a sound public morality, 
that so they may lift up higher and higher the 
ethical sentiments of the people, and the eth- 
ical character of political measures, legislative 
enactments, and judicial decisions. 

The professed religion of a country, what- 
ever it is, will certainly be the great moral 
standard thereof. The great mass may, and 
certainly will, fall short of this, but they will 
never transcend it. 

How solemn, then, the responsibility resting 
upon the Church ! God will hold her to a 
strict account for the morals of the country. 
Without her wise guardian care, these will be 
certain to run down. Let her, then, see to it, 



ETniCAL CLAIMS UPON THE CHURCH. 149 

and let all her members see to it, that their ex- 
ample and their influence generally be such as 
will uphold and diffuse every-where a pure 
ethics. They may do much in this way to bless 
and save their country, as well as the souls of 
men. But if the Church is faithless to her 
high trust, all our interests for time and eter- 
nity must be wrecked. 

But it is especially difficult, in these times, 
for ministers to do their whole duty. 

The Gospel embraces the entire man in all 
his relations — as a citizen as well as a mem- 
ber of the family, and one engaged in the or- 
dinary business of life. However faithful min- 
isters may be to set forth the duties of their 
hearers, growing out of the domestic state 
and their daily walk in their worldly avoca- 
tions, yet if they neglect to instruct men in 
their obligations as citizens of a free country, 
they grievously fail in their great work. The 
religion of their hearers must go with them to 
the polls and into every public office to which 
they may be called. 

The people are sovereign in our Republic, 
and must give an account of this their high 
stewardship. Great, therefore, is their re- 
sponsibility, many their trials, and arduous 
their duties. Certainly, then, the}' need in- 



150 ETHICS FOR TEE TIMES. 

struction here, and counsel, and rebuke, and 
prayer, as much in their position as citizens 
and public officers, as in other spheres of life. 

But there is nothing which corrupt politicians 
so much dread as to have the light of a pure 
Christianity shed upon their character, their 
cause, and their measures. This, they feel, 
would be ruin to them; and, hence, every 
influence, cunning and potent, will be brought 
to bear upon the pulpit to silence or corrupt 
it. The cry usually raised— and, alas! how 
successfully for many years past! — the cry 
usually raised is, "Politics in the pulpit!" 
But this clamor only proclaims the fears of 
those who raise and those who repeat it. Why 
should they dread to have their party position 
and measures faithfully held up in the light of 
God's law and the gospel of his grace ? Their 
outcry here shows not only the rottenness of 
their cause, but that they themselves are con- 
scious of it. " They hate the light, and will 
not come to the light, lest their deeds should be 
reproved." (John iii : 20.) 

But how is our beloved country to be saved ? 
How is all we hold sacred and dear- to be pre- 
served, and perpetuated, and handed down to 
future generations, if they who are set to guide 
their fellow-man in the way of duty neglect 



ETHICAL CLAIMS UPON THE CHURCH. 151 

their high trust, either through the fear or the 
favor of men ? There is no duty, no trial, no 
danger, to which men may be called, in which 
the minister of the Gospel is not bound to 
sympathize with them, and help them, to the 
best of his ability, by his teachings, his counsels, 
his reproofs, and his prayers. 

There is one fact, we have often thought, 
which shows not only the error but the hypoc- 
risy of those who seek to deceive or terrify the 
pulpit into sileuce on the duty of citizens to 
their country. These same politicians, so zeal- 
ous for the purity of the pulpit, have not only no 
objection to have their party sustained by the 
preacher, but can find no language strong 
enough to express their delight in such dis- 
courses: " How sensible! How prudent! How 
calmly conservative! How deservedly popular!" 

But, on the other hand, to give but a single 
example, let the preacher show by his prayers 
that he " feels for those in bonds as bound with 
them," and then, by plain and solemn but 
kind application of Bible truth, show how 
utterly antagonistic to God's law of love and 
the gospel of his grace is the whole system 
and practice of American slavery, and at 
once the outcry is raised, "Politics in the 
pulpit! Crucify him! Crucify him!" 



152 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

And to so mournful an extent was the 
Church, even at the North, thus intimidated 
and corrupted for years past, that her bondage 
was more pitiable, degrading, and injurious 
than that of the poor slave at the South. Not 
a whisper would be tolerated against the sin of 
oppression. If the offending minister was a 
pastor, he must be driven off; if a candidate 
for the Church, he must be contemptuously 
rejected; if a professor in a theological semi- 
nary, or a missionary of an ecclesiastical 
board, he must be disgracefully dismissed; 
and if a member of the Church sinned in the 
same way, he must somehow be silenced. A 
single statement will here be given on this 
subject. 

A few years since, the writer was at a prayer- 
meeting in an Eastern city, on the evening of 
the Lord's day. The large lecture-room of the 
church was well filled, with apparently very 
intelligent and respectable worshipers. A plain- 
looking man knelt down, and, during his prayer, 
which was evidently that of an unlettered but 
deeply devout Christian, he supplicated God's 
compassion for those who are in bonds. The 
poor man had scarcely uttered these offensive 
scriptural words, before the pastor turned to 
the writer, who was in the desk with him, and, 



ETHICAL CLAIMS UPON THE CHURCH. 153 

in an agitated manner, asked, "What shall I 
do with such a man?" The writer, though 
surmising the real cause, replied, "What is 
there wrong in him?" " Why," said the pas- 
tor, " did you not hear what he said just now ? " 
"Yes, sir; but what was there wrong in it?" 
"Nobody here," replied the pastor, "sympa- 
thizes with him ! " Alas ! thought the writer, 
can it be possible that not one in this great 
company of professed Christians feel with this 
humble friend of Jesus! "What shall I do?" 
repeated the pastor. Fearing that he might 
burst out in scathing rebuke, such as would 
crush the poor man on the spot, and inflame 
every bad feeling in others, the writer said, 
"Why not talk with the offender privately?" 
"It will do no good," subjoined the pastor, 
much excited. Dreading still more a painful 
explosion, the writer thought he would make 
one other appeal to his conscience, which could 
scarcely be without effect : "Brother, pray for 
him!" The flush on the pastor's face paled; 
he trembled somewhat; and, at that moment, 
the poor man, utterly unconscious of what had 
been going on in the desk, and how very near 
he had been to a public rebuke, arose from his 
knees. The minister turned to the Bible, read 
a portion, and the usual services followed. It 



154 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

is scarcely necessary to add that the writer 
was made to feel that he himself was suspected 
of being in sympathy with the humble brother 
who dared to pray for the oppressed. 

Such was the miserable, sinful bondage of 
nearly the whole Northern pulpit for very 
many years before the late terrible slaveholders' 
rebellion. Had the Church been faithful to 
her duties, might not our country have been 
spared the horrors of the recent war? What 
an awful responsibility now rests upon her in 
consequence of this sad neglect, and how faith- 
ful ought she to be in the time to come. We 
say the time to come; for reconstruction has its 
perils, its temptations, its difficulties, and its 
duties, far greater than those of war. We are 
now in the midst of these, and never was our 
country in more danger than at the present 
moment. And faithfully to guide and encour- 
age a patriotic people in the arduous work 
before them, we especially need able, intelli- 
gent, deeply pious ministers, such as can not 
be turned aside from their duties by the fear 
or the favor of man.* 

* In all his numerous and useful writings, Mr. Barnes 
never gave a truer utterance, and one which more deserved 
the serious attention of Christians and American citizens, 
than the following: "There is no power out of the Church 



ETHICAL CLAIMS UPON THE CHURCH. 155 

that, could sustain slavery an hour if it were not sustained 
in it." And how speedily did we lose sight of the great 
principle avowed by our revolutionary fathers : " They," 
said President Madison, alluding to the Convention which 
framed the Constitution of the United States, " They thought 
it wrong to admit the idea that man could hold property in 
man." What a deluge of blood and treasure have we re- 
cently been compelled to pour out to revive and re-establish 
this great truth, once so generally held sacred among us. 



156 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ETHICAL RELATIONS OF MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL 
TO WAR. 

War is always sinful, unless waged for the 
cause of truth and righteousness, which could 
not possibly be sustained in any other way. 
The nation that places another in such a posi- 
tion that she must violate, or give up truth and 
righteousness, or fight in their own defense, 
commits a great crime, and the dreadful respon- 
sibility of such a war falls altogether upon the 
guilty nation. War, therefore, to be righteous, 
must always be a defensive war, and morally 
inevitable, such as was that against the recent 
slaveholders' rebellion in this land — a most un- 
provoked, cruel, villainous conspiracy to de- 
stroy our civil and religious liberties, and every 
thing we held sacred and precious, and extend 
the dark and grinding reign of oppression, with 
all its abominable barbarities, over the whole 
country. The loyal people were compelled to 
fight, or the Eepublic must perish. The great 



RELATIONS OF MINISTER^ TO WAR. 157 

interests of truth and righteousness, not only 
for this land but for all lands and throughout 
all time, were vitally involved in the contest. 
Such a struggle was not only justifiable on the 
part of the nation, but it was a most solemn 
duty. All other wars are to be condemned and 
opposed, especially by Christian ministers. 

What, then, are the ethical relations of the 
Gospel ministry to a righteous war ? We reply : 

1. Prayer. God has revealed himself, not 
only as the righteous sovereign of the universe, 
but as the hearer and the answerer of prayer. 
They who have God on their side have no 
reason to fear. God always gives or withholds 
victory, as it pleases him. Hence the duty and 
the encouragement of prayer, in case of a war, 
for righteousness' sake. But especially are min- 
isters bound to pray in such a cause, that the 
fear of God, and faith in his power and wisdom, 
and every other needed qualification, may be 
given to those who stand up in the face of 
danger for truth and righteousness. 

2. Ministers are bound, also, to bestow a pro- 
portionate share of their labors to instruct the 
people in the justice of their cause, and their 
duty to uphold it, and encourage them to hope 
iu him who loveth righteousness, and will 
surely further the interest thereof. 



158 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

3. They ought, during the war, to he espe- 
cially earnest, diligent, and faithful in the great 
work of the ministry generally. And if so, it 
is evident they will have their hearts full and 
their hands full, and their whole time and 
strength thoroughly occupied. ~No work is so 
great and important as that of a faithful min- 
ister in a righteous war. 

Just as a nation stands on grounds of truth 
and righteousness, and is made conscious of so 
doing, will she be strong and of good courage. 
The spiritual and moral power thus brought 
into action will be sure to develop such abun- 
dant moral and physical resources as the na- 
tion never dreamed she possessed, and be sure, 
also, to give a life, and a heartiness, and a fidel- 
ity in the use of these means, which, under 
God's blessing, must finally be crowned with a 
glorious triumph. 

Here, then, is the true work of the minis- 
try, and here, also, their greatest strength in a 
righteous war. They stand, as officers and la- 
borers, at the fountain-head of these all, ener- 
gizing moral and spiritual influences which 
alone can insure victory to a faithful but imper- 
iled people. The very springs of a nation's 
life and power are in their hands; and, if 
faithful to their high trust, they may do more 



RELATIONS OF MINISTERS TO WAR. 150 

in their proper position to encourage a nation, 
and bring about successful results, than the 
greatest generals, or the wisest statesmen, or 
the strongest embattled hosts. But, on the 
other hand, if ministers do their peculiar and 
most important work with heartlessness, and 
especially if they quit it for any other employ- 
ment, they must bring most painful conse- 
quences upon the country, and involve them- 
selves in great guilt. 

But suppose the Government lose sight of 
the true character of the Christian minister, and 
attempt to force them out of their proper posi- 
tion in time of war, and assign them to other 
posts, civil or military, such a policy must 
draw down unspeakable disasters upon the 
contest in which they are engaged. It is the 
folly of cutting off the roots of a tree and en- 
grafting them upon the branches. These last 
may be thus numerically somewhat increased, 
and look bravely for a time, but the whole tree 
must erelong wither and die. 

It is spiritual and moral power that ever 
must be the life and strength of a people. To 
diminish this spiritual and moral power at any 
time, and especially during war, is most ruin- 
ous infatuation. But the great work and busi- 
ness of the Christian Ministry is to cultivate 



160 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

this power, and, therefore, to take them off from 
their peculiar duties is not only a sin against 
God, but a very foolish policy, also. 

A faithful preacher of the Gospel, at his post, 
wields the mightiest influence in the State; but 
a soldier-minister is Sampson shorn of his 
locks, fit for scarcely any thing but to make 
sport for the Philistines. The professed min- 
ister who does not see this, shows that he never 
had adequate scriptural views of his high and 
holy calling, as an embassador of Christ, to 
proclaim peace and salvation to the world, and 
to uphold truth and righteousness among men. 
The Church may well afford to lose such min- 
isters; they may make better presidents, or 
governors, or soldiers. Their proper place is 
manifestly not that of the Christian ministry, 
and they probably mistook their calling when 
they entered into it; and they never ought 
again to return to it, unless altogether changed 
in their views and the spirit of their minds. 
It was, therefore, we doubt not, great na- 
tional folly and sin, when, in the late war, 
ministers of the Gospel were enrolled in the 
draft — far more so than had the Government 
compelled by law all the generals and other 
high officers to go into the ranks, and do the 
duty of common soldiers on the field of battle, 






RELATIONS OF MINISTERS TO WAR. 161 

or the 1 leads of departments at Washington to 
occupy their time in discharging the labors of 
clerks in their several offices. The folly and 
wickedness of such a policy, if persevered in, 
would soon be felt in the enormous evils it 
would bring upon the country. And we are 
confident that much less of treasure and pre- 
cious life would have been squandered had 
the Government simply called upon ministers 
of the Gospel throughout the land to be es- 
pecially faithful in their peculiar, solemn, and 
most important position during the war. And 
had not the people, in most of our congregations, 
been more wise in their views and spirit than 
the National Administration, and provided, in 
most instances, by great pecuniary sacrifices, 
for the exemption of their ministers, most dis- 
astrous might have been the consequences to 
our beloved country. 

But why, it may here be asked, did not the 
different Christian denominations, as such, 
unitedly and earnestly protest against this enor- 
mous folly and terrible evil of compelling min- 
isters to cast aside their peculiar work, so full 
of potent, most needed, and blessed influences, 
especially in time of war, and become soldiers ? 
Why this dumbness of the Church? Many 
causes will doubtless be given ; but was not the 
11 



162 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

most powerfully operative of these the cor- 
rupting and paralyzing influence which South- 
ern slaveholders exercised, for years past, over 
nearly all the religious denominations of the 
North ? This terrible influence brought a thick 
darkness over our churches, enfeebled all their 
moral sensibilities and energies, and robbed 
them of that true spiritual heroism which would 
have made them manfully to stand up and 
vindicate their peculiar and rightful position 
against the most unwise and wrong policy of 
the Government.* 



*A chaplain in the army, if faithful, is certainly a most 
self-sacrificing minister of Christ, and will be highly and 
generally esteemed and loved for his work's sake. But a Right 
Reverend or a Reverend General, or Colonel, or Captain even, 
the world ought to pity, but they can never really re- 
spect him. Bishop Polk, of Louisiana, after he had made up 
his mind to accept a General's commission in the Confederate 
Army, came to consult Bishop Meade, of Virginia, the senior 
Bishop of his Church, South. The latter, though himself 
laboring under the secession delirium, replied : " Had you 
asked my advice, sin, before committing yourself to your 
present course, I would certainly have endeavored to dis- 
suade you from it," etc. 



ETHICS OF JUSTICE OR VENGEANCE. 163 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

ETHICS OF RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE OR VENGEANCE. 

So much has a sensibility to the claims of 
justice been lost by some, either from their 
own practices, or association with unprincipled 
men, or evil instruction, that they endeavor, in 
every way possible, to confound right and 
wrong, and fava? the escape of evil-doers. 

Take a single example of this. They cry out 
against executing justice upon traitors and 
other malefactors as the indulgence of a venge- 
ful or vindictive spirit. By this wicked sophis- 
try multitudes are deceived; even members 
of Congress, and still higher public officers, 
have been confused and nearly paralyzed by 
this artful cry. 

But it ought never to be lost sight of that 
the terms vengeance, vindictive, etc., and their 
synonyms, are used in two very different 
senses. To discharge the claims of justice 
and uphold the authority of law by the de- 
served punishment of bad men, this is one 



164 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

kind of vengeance ; but to manifest a malig- 
nant hate of others, by inflicting suffering 
upon them, though perhaps innocent, or, at 
least, not proved guilty, this is quite another 
species of vengeance. 

The first of these is a most important vir- 
tue, without the exercise of which, by proper 
authority, no one is safe, and society must be 
destroyed. The other is a hateful and most in- 
jurious temper, destructive alike to the rights 
of individuals and to the community. The first 
is so excellent as to be claimed by Divinity : 
"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the 
Lord" (Kom. xii: 19); that is, I will give 
transgressors their merited reward. The gov- 
ernment that does not suitably avenge the 
wrongs of the injured, fails in one of its high- 
est duties. It lowers respect for law ; it ex- 
poses the weak and unprotected to the oppres- 
sion of the strong, the selfish, and the cruel ; 
and so tends speedily to break down all 
society. 

He who has the right and the power to 
punish evil-doers, and will not exercise his 
right and power, becomes himself one of the 
worst of evil-doers, the greatest enemy of the 
peace and safety of his country. He opens 
wicje the door to private violence, the fury of 



ETHICS OF JUSTICE OR VENGEANCE. 165 

mobs, and almost every form of outrage. The 
public officer guilty of such criminal weakness 
or connivance in the escape of villains, ought 
himself to be arraigned and condignly pun- 
ished. He is justly to be regarded as a public 
enemy. " Judex damnatur cum nocens solvitur." 
The judge is rightfully condemned who spares 
the criminal. It was well said, by a public 
speaker, at a late political meeting in Mary- 
land, in answer to this most wicked and inju- 
rious sophistry, which artfully attempts to con- 
found right and wrong, and favor the impunity 
of bad men, "But it will be said, when we 
would punish traitors, ' Will you indulge in re- 
venge? Has there not blood enough been spilt?' 
Yes, we reply, in one sense blood enough has 
been spilt, as in the case of the poor Deering 
family; but does not justice demand other 
blood ? Ought not outraged law, an outraged 
country, and outraged human nature to be 
vindicated upon the head of this most foul 
murderer ? " 

Those who seek to confound justice with a 
malignant revenge may, at times, be thought- 
less people ; but it is to be feared that they are 
usually secret sympathizers with the wicked, 
with whom, as in the case of the late rebellion, 
they had not the courage to stand openly, but 



166 ETHICS FOF THE TIMES. 

now seek to shelter their guilty friends by 
sophistry and the affectation of superior hu- 
manity. Such cowardly traitors are, in truth, 
equally the enemies of their country and God's 
government with open and more manly rebels. 
The selfish, cruel character of the " policy " 
that spares and pardons, and too often rewards 
open and secret traitors, is now becoming ter- 
ribly manifest, in the fresh and wide-spread 
outbreaks of robbery, murder, and savage 
mobs at the South. Who is mainly responsi- 
ble for these most atrocious scenes, not only 
agitating Southern society to its very founda- 
tions, and filling with terror every friend of 
peace and Union there, but threatening the 
safety of the whole country and the destruc- 
tion of all we hold precious and sacred as a 
Christian republic? 



ETHICS OF REPRESENTATION. 167 

CHAPTER XXV. 

ETHICS OF REPRESENTATION. 

There soon appeared, under our Government, 
a difference of views in regard to the position 
of those elected to seats in legislative bodies. 
Upon only two of these views is it here neces- 
sary to dwell. 

The one is, that the legislator was left en- 
tirely to the exercise of his own discretion, 
free to do whatever he thought best for the 
country. According to the other view, the 
legislator elect is simply an agent of the people, 
and, as such, is bound, in all things, to obey 
their instructions, or to do whatever he has good 
reason to believe would meet the approbation 
of his constituents, were it submitted to them. 

The first of these opinions was usually held 
by those known at the different periods of our 
political history as Federalists, Whigs, Repub- 
licans, etc.; the second was maintained by the 
Jefferson ian Democrats, etc. 

It is here worthy of remark, that few ever 
seemed to have extended their thoughts beyond 
the members of legislative bodies. But is it 



168 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

not the fact that all in official positions under 
our Government stand in this respect precisely 
on the same ground? They are alike repre- 
sentatives. We will treat the point, therefore, 
as a general question. 

The fundamental principle of our Govern- 
ment is, under God, the sovereignty of the 
people. To them belong inherently all power, 
legislative, judiciary, and executive, and the 
power, also, to change the Constitution, which 
they adopted, whenever they please. The people 
have no superior on earth, none who can law- 
fully suppress, defeat, or disobey their will. 
There is no appeal from the decision of the 
people. In a word, their voice is ultimate and 
sovereign. Let it be subjoined here that the 
majority expresses this sovereign will, to which 
all must submit. 

But, as it is manifestly impossible for mill- 
ions of people, scattered over so vast a terri- 
tory as ours, to exercise the powers of govern- 
ment themselves, they must choose represent- 
atives to. carry out their views and wishes — in 
other words, to exercise legislative, judiciary, 
and executive powers. These are all merely 
servants of the people, whose duty it is to do 
the work of the people. It is clear, therefore, 
that these representatives, by whatever name 



ETHICS OF REPRESENTATION. 169 

known, all occupy the same relation to the 
people that the agent does to his principal. 
What, then, are the principles or rules that 
ought always to govern the agent ? 

1. If the principal intrusts his business alto- 
gether to the agent's discretion, he ought faith- 
fully to act according to his best judgment. 

2. If certain general instructions are given 
to him, these he is bound carefully to follow. 

3. If special directions are imposed upon 
him, he must rigidly carry these out, or as. far 
as possible. He has no discretion here. To 
use the supercargo's maxim, he "must obey 
orders, if he breaks owners." 

But suppose, it may be asked, the agent be- 
comes convinced that his instructions are not 
judicious; that if his principal were on the 
spot he himself would change them ; indeed, 
if he acts as directed, he must greatly injure 
his principal. What ought he to do? We 
answer: if he has time, and the matter is se- 
rious enough to require it, he ought to inform 
his principal of the facts of the case, and 
await further instructions. 

But when the instructions are come, and he 
supposes them so unwise or wrong that he 
can not conscientiously obey them, what then 
must he do? Certainly he ought not to act 



170 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

against his own conscience, and, therefore, as 
an honest man, he ought at once to resign. 
This he is morally bound to do. The ethical 
principles here are perfectly clear and simple, 
and such as must commend themselves to every 
upright man's conscience. 

Now, all who hold office under our Govern- 
ment are servants or agents of the people, and 
ought to obey, or resign. 

But if it be asked, Who are the sovereign 
people whose voice must be obeyed? we re- 
ply certainly not the people who are to come 
hereafter on the stage of life, nor those who 
have already passed oft* the stage, but the 
present, living, active population. These last, 
our co-existing fellow-citizens, are, under God, 
our sovereign ; and our duty, as trustworthy 
servants, is to obey or give up the public agency 
that has been committed to us. If the forego- 
ing ethical views are correct, all officers of the 
Government, State and National, are under not 
only political but moral obligations to obey the 
people, or yield their positions to those who can. 

We hesitate not, therefore, to say that any 
officer, whatever his position, who, instead of 
carrying out the views and wishes of the sover- 
eign people — that is, of the majority who placed 
him in trust — disobeys these, or, what is still 



ETHICS OF REPRESENTATION. 171 

worse, sets himself to break down his party, 
especially by playing into the hands of their 
opponents, that man is not only unfaithful 
politically as a public servant, but he is a bad 
man. His conduct here clearly shows that 
he is without moral principle, and utterly un- 
worthy to be trusted in any of the relations 
of life. We have, unhappily, had such men 
among us, high in office. But such have 
hitherto been the intelligence and virtue of 
the people, that these deceitful, unprincipled 
men soon sunk into political impotence and 
universal contempt. In the series of the por- 
traits of the Presidents of the United States 
in the rotunda of the Capitol is that of the 
late apostate provisional President Tyler, sus- 
pended, as the papers state, head downward. 
"What a warning to all Benedict Arnolds and 
other traitors, civil and military! 

No public officer can plead ignorance of his 
position in this land of a free press, and free 
speech, and almost daily popular conventions. 
The signs of the times are with us too clear to 
be honestly misunderstood. If, indeed, a pub- 
lic officer merely doubts, or, rather, is not cer- 
tain that he fairly represents those who placed 
him in power, he ought at once to seek further 
light, or quit his position. 



172 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

ETHICS OF GOVERNMENT. 

By government, we mean the whole body 
of legitimately-constituted authority; in other 
words, the Administration, the chosen servants 
of the sovereign people to carry out their views 
and wishes. 

To men in such a position — so important and 
responsible, involving the well-being, and often 
the very being, of the whole country — there 
can be but , one alternative : obey or resign. 
JSTot to do the one or the other is not merely a 
political offense ; it is also an ethical wrong. 

But it is a fact that public men and admin- 
istrations have almost always been behind the 
people. Was it not signally so in the late ter- 
rible crisis of our country ? Honest as was the 
President, and capable as were the most of his 
Cabinet, they had still, at every step, to be 
dragged to their duty. "Why this was generally 
so, why men in public office often seemed so 
paralyzed and feeble, we can not here stop to 
inquire. 



ETHICS OF GOVERNMENT. 173 

Making every allowance, however, for that 
prudent hesitancy which a feeling of great re- 
sponsibility must often naturally produce, and 
taking into consideration, also, those clearer and 
wider views of things which their lofty position 
might present, but which are nearly hidden 
from the dwellers in the vale below — making 
the largest allowance for these, we are yet 
compelled to believe that there was not a small 
amount of blameworthy short-sightedness and 
inefficieney in the late President and his Cabi- 
net. Contrast the call, with bated breath, at 
the beginning of the war, for seventy-Jive thou- 
sand men and a hundred millions of dollars with 
the instantaneous outburst, in thunder tones, 
from the whole loyal people : " There are 

FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN AND FIVE HUNDRED 
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS! CRUSH DOWN AT ONCE 

this most wicked rebellion ! " Nothing more 
sublime was ever witnessed under the wonder- 
working providence and Spirit of God. He 
who manifested his power at Pentecost, then 
solemnly spoke through this loyal nation. 

New life from that moment seemed to enter 
into the Government, but it too speedily began 
to slacken and falter, and almost invite disas- 
ter. Rebels were thus reinvigorated, and loyal 
people discouraged. Still, the people faithfully 



174 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

rallied round their chosen Government, and 
continued to hope even against hope. 

But there thus came a time when treason at 
the South and treason within the loyal States, 
manifestly taking fresh courage from the effete- 
ness of the Administration, were laying plans 
to involve the whole country in a revolution- 
ary struggle more vast and terrific than ever 
ill-fated France endured in her darkest night. 
A private citizen, at that time, was so deeply 
impressed with this view of things, and the 
fearful perils hanging over our country, that 
he felt constrained to address the following 
letter to a friend, then a member of the Ad- 
ministration at Washington: 

"September 17, 1862. 

"Dear Sir: I would call your attention to the inclosed 
slip. It is the leading editorial of , just issued. 

"It was written before the recent terrible disasters in 
Virginia. Had it been penned after these sad evidences of 
incompetency — to use the softest expression of public senti- 
ment — it would probably have assumed a darker hue. 

"There are, East and West, signs of the times thickly 
gathering, in the contemplation of which I can not but feel 
grieved and alarmed. These all indicate a fast waning 
popular confidence in the President and our rulers generally. 
This is, of itself, to be deplored, because every thing among 
us must ultimately rest upon the people. No Administration 
can stand long or do much good if the great heart of the 
people is not decidedly with it. And never has an Adminis- 



ETHICS OF GOVERNMENT. 175 

tration received so liberal and energetic a support as the 
present has till recently. 

"But this is not the worst of the case; for, just as was to 
be expected, too many of the discomfited adherents of the 
late imbecile, traitorous Administration, who have been con- 
tinually on the watch for their opportunity, are now mani- 
festly striving to take advantage of this unhappy state of the 
public mind, by throwing out hints and half-formed plans, 
which, so far as these take with the people, or any consider- 
able portion of them, will operate most disastrously. I need 
say nothing to you of the ominous falling off in the Republi- 
can majorities in the late elections. 

" A calm and quite wide survey of these things convinces 
me that our beloved country was never in more danger than 
at this moment. But I trust that God, in his mercy, will 
avert the awful crisis before us, and that the world will be 
spared a second and much more aggravated 'reign of 

TERROR.' 

" A very large proportion of the wisest and best and most 
patriotic men, in all parts of the land, begin to fear that, 
through a want in our rulers of a right apprehension of the 
position and perils of the nation, or of a manliness to meet 
their responsibilities, or something worse — or all combined — 
our country is now on the edge of a precipice. Nothing but 
an instant and overwhelming demonstration, on the part of 
the Government, of a rising up to the greatness of the work 
and the danger before us will reassure the public mind. 
Such is a very brief but, I believe, faithful sketch of the 
'signs of the times.' 

" As for myself, you know how long I foresaw our present 
troubles, and how often I raised my voice, during the last 
twenty-five years, to avert them. I always hoped that, in the 
honest, earnest use of Christian and Constitutional means, 
we should peacefully escape these evils. 

"I used, in times past, to liken our country to a gallant 



176 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

ship, richly freighted, under a full pressure of canvas, plow- 
ing her way over the Atlantic, but nearing, every hour, Cape 
Horn — the region of storms. If she weathered this, we had 
the broad Pacific before us. The tempest is now upon us. 
Shall we be wrecked? Increasing multitudes fear we shall. 
But let the captain and his mates — the crew have always 
shown brave hearts and strong arms — let the captain and 
his mates, I say, only 'quit themselves like men, and be 
strong,' and we shall speedily and safely double the Cape. 

" My motto, as I have often expressed it to you, years ago, 
still continues — Be Republica nil desperandum. I can not help, 
at times, indeed, having painful misgivings ; but, thank God ! 
hope predominates. All my influence, as an old citizen, I 
put forth in behalf of the Administration, because I believe 
that it is honest and capable, and that our best interests as 
a people are in its hands. And my continual prayer — in the 
closet, at the family altar, and in the sanctuary — is, that God 
would grant abundantly wisdom, integrity, and strength to 
our rulers, and understanding, patriotism, and energy to all 
our people. 

" Let me here add a word about the editorial above alluded 
to. Its a?iimus can not, I think, be mistaken — serious, but 
hopeful, honestly looking evils and mistaken men full in 
the face, fearlessly pointing out what only can save us, and 
earnestly calling on all ' good men and true ' to rally around 
the Administration. Mere politicians, and selfish men gen- 
erally, may think little of such views and appeals, but they 
will commend themselves to the moral sense, the patriotism, 
and the religion of the country. Your friend, etc., 



The Administration seemed for awhile to re- 
vive; more vigorous endeavors were put forth, 
and the hearts of the people were encouraged. 



ETHICS OF GOVERNMENT. 177 

But disasters, soon after, began again to 
thicken, and it became manifest that we must 
rise above a mere expediency policy, which had 
hitherto too much ruled, and come manfully 
up to our moral obligations. Accordingly, the 
long-delayed Emancipation Proclamation was 
sent forth, and our colored fellow-citizens, 
North and South, were called to rally around 
the national standard. They did so, magnani- 
mously and bravely, on many a bloody battle- 
field, aud victory every-where soon crowned 
our efforts, and brought triumph and peace to 
a united Eepublic. 

We subjoin here but two questions, involv- 
ing, however, very serious ethical considera- 
tions : 

1. Might not the bottom of the rebel tub 
have been knocked out at the very beginning 
of the rebellion by proclaiming at once the 
abolition of slavery, and so hundreds of thou- 
sands of precious lives and millions of dollars 
have been saved to the country? 

2. Since this most unprovoked and wicked 
rebellion has been put down, has the General 
Government faithfully performed its great duty 
of justice upon its principal leaders, civil and 
military, and so vindicated the majesty of law, 
made treason odious to all coming generations, 

12 



178 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

and brought a true and permanent peace to 
our country? 

Nothing was more clear and generally ac- 
knowledged, both by loyal and rebel people, 
than the fact that slavery was the great cause 
of secession and the dreadful consequences it 
involved; and the whole course of the war 
most plainly showed that slavery was its main 
support. Of these facts the loyal people gen- 
erally soon became convinced, and, hence, they 
called out continually for the destruction of this 
monstrous evil. 

But the Administration delayed, and delayed, 
and delayed, till death and mourning darkened 
nearly every loyal hearth-stone, and millions 
of dollars — the hard earnings of the people — 
were sunk forever. The benign results of 
emancipation, so clearly predicted and plainly 
shown from the first, soon followed. But why 
was not this measure adopted at the beginning? 
Where does the blood-guiltiness for this wicked 
procrastination of justice chiefly rest ? Making 
every proper allowance for the reasonable ap- 
prehension of furnishing occasion for traitorous 
outbreaks in the North by so decided a measure, 
we still think that, through the want of a high 
sense of moral obligation and the undue influ- 
ence of a low political expediency, and, espe- 



ETHICS OF GOVERNMENT. 179 

cially, a deficiency of an enlightened, generous 
confidence in the loyal people, the Administra- 
tion exhibited no small evidence of a deplorable 
ethical and political deficiency. Indeed, the 
Government rarely took a step in advance till 
absolutely compelled by loud and long-con- 
tinued popular urgency. Hence, it was em- 
phatically the people's war, the people's tri- 
umphs; and nearly the whole honor of the 
glorious issue belongs not to the Admistration, 
but most manifestly, to the people. 

And what can be more evident at this mo- 
ment than the unjust action of the General 
Government ! Is it the misdirected ambition of 
the President or the timidity of Congress which 
is most to be blamed ? Nearly every measure 
which justice and the safety of the country so 
urgently call for is defeated, or so frittered 
down by compromise as to promise little good, 
but make terribly certain a harvest of woe for 
the future. 

It is not traitors that are now being punished, 
but Union men — men faithful to their country 
in the darkest hour of peril, sacrifice, and suf- 
fering. Traitors are every day made to rejoice 
in the spoils of victory. We need not be sur- 
prised, therefore, that the spirit of hate and 
secession is taking fresh courage, and is again 



180 ethics for the times. 

rampant at the South, and that the day of a 
peaceful and safe reconstruction is now further 
off than it was at the close of the war. Where 
rests all this fearful blameworthiness? Cer- 
tainly the present disaffected, agitated, and 
most perilous condition of our country, after 
her late decisive and glorious victories, argues 
a terrible load of guilt somewhere. Intemper- 
ance in high places and low, a mad ambition, 
a shameful moral imbecility, and a traitorous 
spirit, seem all to have conspired in most 
unholy alliance for the ruin of the Republic* 

* It is melancholy to reflect how many men of large influ- 
ence among us, and high in office, have wrecked themselves, 
and brought incalculable mischief on the country by this one 
crime of drunkenness. 

Some years ago, the writer saw a man in the antechamber 
of the United States Senate-chamber, then filling one of the 
highest positions in the General Government — a man who 
enjoyed the most liberal confidence and support of his party, 
and who might have been the next President. But had it 
not been for previous acquaintance, and the place I met him, 
and his dress, I would have taken him for a low, drunken 
porter, or some common laborer of similar habits. Even his 
party was obliged, at last, to give up,the poor sot, and he soon 
sunk into oblivion. 

And how many since have run the same disgraceful course 
and arrived at the same miserable end! And how many 
now in public life, and lofty places, too, are there, though so 
often and solemnly warned, treading the downward path, a' 
reproach to themselves and a curse to the country. 



ETHICS OF GOVERNMENT. 181 

But we trust in God. lie who often, and 
mercifully, and wondrously rescued us in the 
late bloody struggle, will yet send us deliver- 
ance in his own time and way. Let a true 
Christian ethics be studied, and reverenced 
and restored to supremacy in ourland ; let 
the people determine, in the fear of the Lord, 
that they will " do justly, love mercy, and walk 
humbly before God," and we have every 
thing to hope for. Do not Heaven's past deal- 
ings with us give most encouraging assu- 
rances that there is yet a bright morn and a 
glorious day before us? God maketh "the 
wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder 
thereof he restraineth." The craft and the 
folly, the drunkenness and the mad ambition, 
the timid policy and the want of a sound, 
manly, lofty ethics in so many, all these evils 



And it is one of the darkest signs of the times, that when 
one of these victims of strong drink has, on some public 
occasion, outraged the feelings of a brother official, he has 
turned upon him, in contemptuous wrath, and inflicted a 
scathing rebuke upon the poor wretch ; but no effectual meas- 
ures followed for his expulsion from his high place. Tho 
country has still to suffer from the misconduct of such men. 
Shall they be permitted speedily to ruin us? Not if we 
solemnly determine never to vote for any but strictly temperate 



182 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

will the Almighty, infinitely wise and merciful 
Sovereign, so direct and control as finally to 
glorify his own great name, and humble us in 
the wondrous and abundant deliverance which 
he will — we trust very speedily — graciously 
bring to our beloved but now fearfully imper- 
iled country. 



ETHICS OF ELECTORS. 188 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

ETHICS OF ELECTORS. 

On what grounds are candidates for public 
offices usually selected ? Availability, we reply. 
This is the one great consideration. It is not, 
Is he a good man — a moral man; or even is 
he competent in point of intellect and intelli- 
gence, and minor qualifications, fitting him to 
become an able officer; but is he available; 
that is, is he the man most likely to be elected ? 

Availability is the sine qua non, " the one 
thing needful." The candidate must be the most 
available man, whatever else he may want — 
morals, sense, respectability, etc. 

It is this understood condition that brings for- 
ward so many improper candidates, and puts 
into office so many incompetent and too often 
very bad men. And this only condition, availa- 
bility, is itself a powerful means of corruption, 
political and moral. It debauches the public 
mind, and leads all who are seeking office to do 
so by the practice of disingenuous arts to be all 



184 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

things (in the bad sense) to all men, even the 
vilest; so that we rarely expect to find much 
honesty in a politician. And by the time such 
a man has reached much political eminence, he 
has usually lost whatever of integrit}^ he once 
had. And for all this corruption, and the mis- 
erable malfeasance in public affairs to which it 
gives rise, political parties are usually most to 
be blamed. Parties, as heretofore existing, vir- 
tually hold out premiums for artful, bad men; 
and by party manipulations, these bad men 
are usually made worse. And if this party 
policy is not soon arrested, the country must 
be ruined. 

Nothing but the adoption of a sound ethics 
here can save us. This teaches us that the 
first quality required in a candidate ought to 
be, Is he upright f then, Is he competent for 
office intellectually, and of such health and 
strength as will enable him to perform its du- 
ties? A BAD MAN, HOWEVER ABLE, CAN NEVER 

make a good OFFICER. Let this be deeply en- 
graven on our hearts ; let it never be forgotten 
by the elector : A bad man, in the ordinary 
walks of life, can not be a good public officer. 
Whatever of intellectual qualifications he may 
have, his want of moral worth will be sure, in 
the end, not merely to neutralize the excellen- 



ETHICS OF ELECTORS. 185 

cics he may possess, but render his general in- 
fluence injurious to the public welfare. Such 
an official is only the more influential as a cor- 
rupter of future candidates, and the commu- 
nity generally. 

Let nothing, then, ever induce us to, vote for 
an intemperate man, or a man immoral in any 
respect, whatever his talents may be; for just 
in proportion to these last will he, if a bad 
man, be mischievous, working the more effi- 
ciently to do evil. 

Oh, that the public were fully awake to the 
unspeakable importance of good morals in 
public officers ! It is painful enough to see any 
man, however humble his position, become the 
victim of the intoxicating cup, and so demoral- 
ize, degrade, and ruin himself. But how much 
more deplorable the consequences of intem- 
perance in our public men ! And yet we little 
think, when we hear low, factious harangues 
by men in lofty places, addressed to packed 
assemblies of vile, selfish partisans, or read 
of corrupt compromises and other evil meas- 
ures in Congress, and of disreputable debates 
there, and the disgraceful violence that so 
often results from these— we little think that 
drunkenness is the chief elenient in all this 
mischief. Sober men do not act like fools or 



186 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

bullies in Congress or out of it, in public office 
or private life. The intoxicating cup is at the 
bottom of these terrible evils. But there is 
another most potent corrupter of morals and 
of public men, which ought not here to be 
passed over in silence. It is slavery. 

Slaveholders are very generally men of 
strong drink, and never can rise to much of a 
true morality. They who withhold the wages 
of labor must necessarily corrupt their own 
hearts, and deeply impair their intellects also. 
Hence, Southern men in public offices have 
usually been not only low in morals, but al- 
ways greatly deficient in common-sense, or a 
sound, sober, practical judgment. The miser- 
able evils brought upon the country in times 
past by such men, put in office chiefly through 
servile parties at the North, are not to be de- 
scribed. It is to be hoped, however, that the 
terrible experience of our late civil war will 
open our eyes to this folly. A recent utterance 
of John Yan Buren, as it was reported, " Dem- 
ocratic Presidents do not die in office ! " is a 
most significant index to these evils. 

The low morals and ferocity growing out of 
slavery made the South the land of pistols and 
bowie-knives, the paradise of assassins. A re- 
ward of twenty thousand dollars was offered a 



ETHICS OF ELECTORS. 187 

few years, in the public prints at the South, 
for the head of a most upright, respectable, 
and benevolent citizen in the North ! And 
one hundred thousand dollars were there also 
held out to any villain who would assassinate 
Mr. Lincoln! 

A true ethics demands of us never to select 
candidates for office, and never to vote for 
men as candidates, who are demoralized by 
intemperance, slaveholding, or any corrupt 
practice. Such men are unlit, in head, heart, 
and manners, to fill any office in a Christian 
republic. 



188 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 

PRESENT ETHICAL RELATION OF THE FREE LOYAL 

STATES TO THE LATE SLAVEHOLDING 

REBEL STATES. 

Two facts will plainly show the ethical rela- 
tion of the first of these classes of States to 
the other. 

1. The free States, from their social position 
and education, could not all along but see and 
feel the injustice of slavery, and the monstrous 
evils growing out of it, not only to the States 
themselves in which it unhappily existed, but 
to the whole country. 

And yet, for the sake of a supposed gainful 
intercourse with the slave States, they were will- 
ing to wink at the enormities of slavery, to yield 
to its arrogant demands, to get and continue 
their favor at almost any price, and to perse- 
cute, most shamefully and cruelly, any among 
us at the J^orth, however benevolent, peace-, 
able and respectable, who dared to say a single 
word against oppression, or to lisp a warning 
about the terrible evils it must, if not put away, 
bring upon the whole land- Another fact : 



RELATION OF LOYAL TO REBEL STATES. 189 

2. The free loyal States have, at this moment, 
through the good providence of God, the means 
of education, and of Christian influence gen- 
erally, in rich abundance. Their ethical rela- 
tion, therefore, to the late slaveholding portion 
of our country is perfectly clear. 

Surely they ought, if they would make some 
amends for their past selfish, unrighteous course 
here ; if they would save their miserable fellow- 
citizens at the South ; if, indeed, they would 
save themselves and the country, they ought, 
we say, to feel and manifest the deepest con- 
cern for the people of the late slaveholding 
States, to pray much for them, to give most 
liberally and labor most earnestly to educate, 
and evangelize, and in general to elevate and 
bless the whole Southern population, white 
and colored. Has not the God of providence 
" shut up " the free States to this most benign 
work ? In no other way can we save ourselves 
and our beloved country than by fidelity in 
this great and truly Christian mission. But 
are the churches and the people generally of 
the free North doing all they can here ? There 
is no time to be lost. Reconstruction on any 
plan, without this foundation Christian work, 
will be sure destruction to the whole country. 



190 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE ETHICS OP PARDON. 

This has recently grown to be a very im- 
portant subject among us, and as such it seems 
proper to discuss it in the present treatise. 

The pardoning power must be lodged some- 
where in every government of man. Other- 
wise, such is the imperfection of human tri- 
bunals that the innocent might, at times, 
unjustly suffer. To obviate this a true ethics 
calls for a pardoning power in every human 
government; but, at the same time, to prevent 
the abuse of it, and the unhappy consequences 
thence resulting to the community, a true 
ethics demands also that this power be exer- 
cised only when the Executive is convinced, 
from the record of trial, that there is reasona- 
ble doubt of guilt, or other evidence has since 
come to light in favor of the condemned, or 
the public good, in some way, clearly requires 
the remission of the sentence. These views 
are accepted, under all Christian governments, 
as right and safe. And under such govern- 



THE ETHICS OF PARDON. 191 

ments it is also universally held that all ac- 
cused persons are to be regarded and treated 
as innocent till they are legally proved guilty. 

But if this latter view be correct, then it is 
evidently worse than folly to speak of pardoning 
a person who has not been tried and condemned. 

But, further, with us the President, as such, is 
Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy ; 
and, therefore, in either branch of military serv- 
ice, or a military district under martial law, the 
Commander-in-chief may, for reasons which he 
deems sufficient, grant an amnesty, or certificate, 
exempting the suspected or accused individual 
from trial by court-martial. The necessity of 
the case, it is thought, required that such a power 
should be possessed by the generalissimo. 

But these amnesties, or certificates of exemp- 
tion from the processes of military courts, are 
manifestly no bar to the exercise of jurisdic- 
tion by the civil courts; they ought never, in 
this way, to prove a refuge to traitors from 
justice. Otherwise, the President, if plotting 
against the country, might paralyze the pub- 
lic defense by pardoning beforehand the tools 
of his traitorous policy.* 

* In Art. XI and Section 2 of the Constitution of the 
United States, we find a principle laid down making pro- 
vision against evils of this sort. 



192 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

What, then, are we to think of the many so- 
called, but very improperly called, pardons re- 
cently granted to traitors ? They may exempt 
those who receive them from the action of 
courts-martial; but such persons are just as 
liable as ever to be arrested and tried before 
the civil courts. As a security against such a 
process of justice, they are not worth the 
paper they are written on. After, indeed, such 
trial, the President, if he deem it right, may 
extend pardon to persons so condemned; but 
the very idea of pardon before conviction is 
preposterous. It would completely nullify the 
power of the people for defense against the 
machinations of traitors, and so subject the 
whole country to be ruined, even by the most 
contemptible handful of bold, bad men. 



THE ETHICS OF CONSEQUENCES. 193 



CHAPTER XXX. 

ETHICS OF CONSEQUENCES. 

The relation between ethics and truth is 
most intimate and inseparable. By truth, we 
here mean not veracity, or the virtue of truth- 
fulness, but the exact ideal representation of 
things. When this is expressed in words, these 
are said to be true; that is, they convey an ac- 
curate account of an exact ideal of things. 

Ethics demand, moreover, that not only what 
we say should be true — that is, an accurate ac- 
count of our thoughts — but that these thoughts 
themselves be an exact representation of 
things. And just as our minds are in a sound 
moral condition will we love truth, seek after 
it, and faithfully defend it. And not only so, 
but this love will embrace all the logical con- 
sequences of any particular truth, to the 
knowledge of which we have attained. Hence, 
our minds will naturally travel onward toward 
all the consequences or logical results of any 
truth we may hold. We feel that all truth is 
precious, and that each truth must harmonize 
13 



194 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

with every other truth, and with the whole 
system of truth. 

We do not, indeed, blame the man who 
holds a truth, but refuses his assent to a logi- 
cal consequent of it, which he can not, or at 
least does not, as yet see ; but we must despise 
him who, from want of moral courage, closes 
his eyes against the fair consequences of the 
position which he professes to hold, or, still 
worse, if he discerns these, but is not willing 
frankly to avow them. 

Such being our nature, we need not be sur- 
prised to find that the tendency of the indi- 
vidual mind, and of all communites of men, has 
ever been to follow up, and maintain, and re- 
duce to practice all the legitimate consequences 
of any and every position held to be true. 
We feel that it is our duty, as rational, respon- 
sible beings, to give this tendency free exer- 
cise; that not to do so is pusillanimous and 
dishonest. We can not respect ourselves if we 
resist this tendency ; and the nation or people 
who are guilty of such inconsistency must 
also lose their self-respect, and become a prey 
to unrest, and at last fall to pieces* We must 
travel onward with truth, or perish. There is 
no standing still here. Progress — peaceable or 
violent — progress is our destiny, if we would 



ETHICS OF CONSEQUENCES. 195 

be saved; and to shrink back from this des- 
tiny, is to sink into contempt and utter ruin. 

The foregoing remarks will, we think, throw 
much light upon the past and future history of 
our country. As, first, 

1. We may see that our late terrible civil 
war was inevitable. 

We had, at the very beginning of our 
national existence, proclaimed to the whole 
world that liberty was a native and inaliena- 
ble right of man ; but, in the very teeth of 
this clear, solemn avowal, we permitted slav- 
ery to exist among us. The logical and ethic- 
al inconsistencies of such a position could not 
long be endured. We must either abandon 
the principle or admit its results. 

Had we Christian character sufficient as a 
nation, we would have long since peaceably 
settled the difference between the free and the 
slaveholding States, and made liberty univer- 
sal. But if we had not the wisdom and up- 
rightness to do this good work, a bloody strug- 
gle must be the result; and in a nation so 
largely free and strong as we were, it could not 
but be a struggle so gigantic as the world 
never before witnessed. The exact truth on 
this subject was pithily expressed by Mr. Lin- 
coln, when a candidate for a seat in the Senate 



I 



196 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

of the United States. "We must" said he, 

" BE ALL FREE OR ALL SLAVE ! " III a WOrd, the 

logical consequences of a truth held must, 
sooner or later, come out, and be practically 
established. 

God has now, in the most signal manner, for- 
ever settled the question among us by the ar- 
bitrament of the sword. Slavery has in our 
country been mortally wounded, and whatever 
troubles may attend its dying agonies, die it 
must ; and the nation, thus mercifully delivered, 
will move onward with renewed strength in 
the path of universal freedom. And we are 
verily persuaded that he who would be bold 
enough to depict but the one half of the glo- 
rious future soon to be realized among us, 
would be almost universally looked upon as a 
weak visionary, if not a downright madman. 
But are not the teachings and the warnings of 
these visionaries of the last half century, now 
received among us as sober truths, our most 
precious possessions, the very corner-stone of 
our nation's power, prosperity, and glory ? In- 
structed, then, and encouraged by the past, let 
us all now come, with united hearts and hands, 
to reconstruct our noble national edifice upon 
the sure foundation of equal rights and uni- 
versal liberty. 



ETIIICS OF CONSEQUENCES. 197 

2. Universal suffrage must, erelong, be es- 
tablished among us. 

The whole history of our country has shown 
this. We started into national existence with 
restrictions upon the ballot, more or less, in 
every State. But these have nearly all disap- 
peared. Some, indeed, have grieved over this 
forward movement, resisted it, and wondered 
at their own want of success. But a little re- 
flection, we think, must convince such opposers 
that their resistance is futile. Every great 
principle adopted by a people must, in due 
time, bring into existence all its logical conse- 
quences. "We must deny the fundamental prin- 
ciples of our Republic, that freedom is the in- 
alienable right of man ; every one born in this 
country is a citizen thereof by his birth ; and 
that the people are sovereign — we must deny 
these great foundation truths, if we will not 
have universal suffrage. This last is the right 
of rights, because the only barrier by which 
all other rights can long be protected and 
maintained. Withhold the right of suffrage 
from any class of our fellow-citizens, and this 
pariah class is already virtually enslaved, and 
the legitimate consequences of their oppression 
will be sure rapidly and fearfully to manifest 
themselves. Continual unrest and final revo- 



198 ETHICS FOR TIIE TIMES. 

lution must be the result. All must and ought 
here to stand on equal ground. Any departure 
from this principle, or falling short of it, is both 
a logical and an ethical inconsistency that time 
will sweep away from our country, if we are 
destined to grow and prosper and occupy an 
honored and influential position among the 
great powers of the earth. 

But universal suffrage, in its true import 
and power, is not accomplished merely by 
putting the ballot into the hand of every ca- 
pable citizen. Universal suffrage is not only 
the logical and ethical result of popular sov- 
ereignty, but it is also a logical and moral re- 
sult that universal suffrage should at all times 
control, as much as possible, every servant of 
the people, whatever his official position in the 
Government. This consideration, fairly fol- 
lowed out, must ultimately bring almost every 
appointment to office, from the highest to the 
lowest, to the direct decision of the popular 
ballot. 

Hitherto the people have made certain ap- 
pointments to office through electors, and the 
officers thus chosen have been permitted to 
exercise a vast official patronage by appointing 
others to office. But this has been found often 
to defeat the will of the people, practically to 



ETHICS OF CONSEQUENCES. 199 

despoil them of their sovereignty, and, what is 
still worse, to open a wide door to most shame- 
ful and disastrous corruption. Mr. Lincoln, 
for example, was defeated when a candidate 
for a seat in the Senate of the United States. 
The vote of the electors was against him, and 
yet he had the larger popular vote. This is 
not at all an uncommon case, though it is 
manifestly in the very teeth of popular sov- 
ereignty. Such inconsistency can not, there- 
fore, he much longer endured. The people 
will, and ought to, vote directly for Senators, * 
President, etc., and thus close the door against^ 
defeat through the unfaithfulness of electors. 
But there is still a further evil here. It grows 
out of the enormous patronage hitherto con- 
ceded to certain officers. Suppose, for example, 
a Provisional President — that is, one who 
came into his high office by the death or some 
constitutional disqualification of his predeces- 
sor — suppose such an one, we say, so utterly 
wanting in honesty and patriotism that he is 
willing to use his vast power of removal and 
appointment to office in such a way as to dis- 
appoint and demoralize the party that elected 
him, play into the hand of the opposition, and do 
sore injury to his country — indeed, fearfully 
risk its ruin ; and all this simply to bring about 



200 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

his own re-election. Such a thing, hase as it 
is, may be done, as we already know by sad 
experience. But can this evil be much longer 
tolerated? The remedy is obvious, and we 
must, sooner or later, come to it, so sure as the 
right of self-preservation is felt, and so sure as 
a true ethics demands that we follow out to its 
legitimate results every great principle recog- 
nized by us. These high offices must be di- 
vested of their means of corruption as fast as 
possible; and the people must themselves, as 
far as possible, directly choose all public officers. 

Then we shall no longer see a man occupy- 
ing one of the most important positions under 
the Government — that of Speaker of the House 
of Representatives — with the price of treachery, 
a written promise of a first-class foreign em- 
bassy, in his pocket. And no more shall we 
see a man thrust into the venerable post of 
Chief- Justice because a supple tool to an arbi- 
trary President. 

If the people are not, and never can be, 
competent to choose their own servants, our 
Government is so far a failure. But, in this 
case, logical consistency and a sound ethics de- 
mand of us that we here effect, as speedily as 
possible, such a change in our Constitution as 
shall remove or greatly modify the sovereignty 



ETHICS OF CONSEQUENCES. 201 

of the people. But, if this really be so, do we 
not need a Napoleon, and shall Ave not soon 
have one? To us there can be no half-way, 
reasonable, befitting, honest standing-place. 
We must be a true, consistent, Christian Re- 
public throughout — the freest Government on 
the face of the earth — a genuine Democracy — 
or, erelong, become a military despotism. 

But one remark more and we close this head 
of our discussion. Has it not hitherto been 
the great mistake of our statesmen, and public 
officers generally, that they have shown a want 
of entire, cordial confidence in the people? 
Hence their endeavors, in many cases, to cover 
up, as much as possible, their proceedings and 
their measures from the people, and their little 
concern to ascertain the real views of the people ; 
and even where these were known, their fre- 
quent attempts to counteract them. No sooner 
have they got into office than they really ap- 
peared to have " forgotten the hole of the pit 
whence they were digged," and to have become 
possessed with the idea, " We are the men, 
and wisdom will die with us ! " Poor, mistaken 
men ! Has not our whole political history 
proved that the people have ever been, in point 
of wisdom, virtue, and manly self-sacrificing 
patriotism, ahead of the Administration, espo- 



202 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

eially at each great crisis of our country ? But 
the people are always generous and magnani- 
mous. Notwithstanding the many offenses and 
shortcomings of statesmen and parties, the 
people have continued to confide in them till 
they have overwhelmingly shown themselves 
utterly recreant to their high trust. They have 
then cast these unfaithful servants down with 
such a manifestation of popular contempt and 
abhorrence as has sealed their political doom 
forever. Is it not just so now with the sham 
Democracy ? It is dead, dead ! but its relics are, 
doubtless for some wise purposes, left to remain 
a stench in the public nostrils. 

The people will rarely fail to sustain the 
statesmen and the party who show themselves 
worthy of the people. We can not honestly 
doubt this, and be the intelligent, upright 
friends of a true American Democracy. 

3. Freedom of intercourse between us and 
all other nations will become more and more 
unrestricted, and, at last, be perfectly estab- 
lished. 

Different countries differ exceedingly in sit- 
uation, climate, and soil. Each has its peculiar 
advantages and productions, and no one can 
supply itself with all it needs, especially at a 
high state of civilization. 



ETHICS OF CONSEQUENCES. 203 

These facts show clearly enough the divine 
intention that nations shall be mutually de- 
pendent, and that there ought to be a fair, 
free, and kindly interchange of benefits. Such 
intercourse must tend to promote mutual know- 
ledge, respect, and friendly feelings, and thus 
greatly help forward a general and high state 
of civilization. 

It is, therefore, not only the best policy, but 
a great duty of every people to cultivate the 
freest possible intercourse with all other na- 
tions. We say the freest possible, because such 
have unhappily hitherto been the mistaken 
views, and the consequent narrow, selfish leg- 
islation, in most countries, that other nations 
could not at once open a free trade with them 
without exposing themselves to great loss and, 
perhaps, ruin. Such communication must, 
therefore, be the work of time. 

But it is our duty, and that of every people, 
in the meanwhile, to do all we can to usher 
in the day of a perfectly unrestricted commu- 
nication between ourselves and all other na- 
tions. And do not our free institutions, so far 
in advance of those of all other people, give 
us peculiar advantages here to pursue a most 
liberal policy? Let us, then, be examples in 
this respect, and by such an enlightened and 



204 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

high moral position we shall the sooner secure 
to ourselves the greatest economic benefits, 
besides the growing confidence, good-will, and 
honor of all other people. 

The day will come — and may a good Provi- 
dence hasten it ! — when mankind, however di- 
vided into nationalities, shall really form but 
one great, united, happy family, each feeling 
its best interests involved in the welfare of the 
whole. And when that long-hoped-for day 
comes, the whole earth will exhibit such a 
scene of purity, power, prosperity, and happi- 
ness as shall far transcend the brightest dreams 
that ever Christian philanthropy has dared to 
indulge. "The wilderness and the solitary 
place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice 
and blossom as the rose." (Isaiah xxxv: 1.) 

4. It is morally certain that Christianity will 
finally prevail over the whole earth. 

"We say nothing here of either the scriptural 
prophecies or the scriptural promises, which 
make our position sure to every believer in 
God's Word. We confine ourselves now to 
the ethical view of our subject. 

Let any serious, intelligent reader examine 
the different forms of false religion, as heathen- 
ism, in its vast varieties, Mohammedanism, etc., 
and he will quickly discover that they have 



ETHICS OF CONSEQUENCES. 205 

little power to elevate a nation ; that they all 
have in them the seeds of weakness and decay; 
that those who retain them must, in the advance 
of the world, be left far behind to feebleness 
and contempt, and, sooner or later, to ruin. 

But Christianity is vital throughout, and it 
has in it all the elements of illimitable progress. 
It is an inexhaustible ethical power, which will 
ultimately raise the whole human family to the 
highest point of perfection, moral, intellectual, 
physical, and economic, that the constitution 
of human nature and the world permits. With 
Christianity in our hands, and peering as keenly 
as we can into the future, we must feel assured 
that we can not descry more than a faint glimpse 
of the glory in reserve for Christian nations. 

If this be so, and the whole history of the 
world and every examination of the sacred 
Scriptures make it manifest, then it is ethically 
certain that Christianity must ultimately tri- 
umph over the whole earth, because the great 
principles of Christianity, now embraced by 
millions, must be followed out into their log- 
ical consequences — in a word, just as all false 
religions must in time perish, because their 
logical results must weaken, retard, corrupt, 
and finally destroy all the peoples who receive 
them, so Christianity, as its logical conse- 



206 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

quences are developed in the continual progress 
of those nations who embrace it, is thus ethic- 
ally sure to vindicate itself. Must not, then, 
mankind abjure their moral nature, cease to 
be men, or Christianity universally prevail and 
lift the whole world up to the highest point 
of civilization and happiness? 



VIEWS OF OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE. 207 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

ETHICAL VIEWS OF OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE. 

What are the views which a true ethics will 
warrant us to take of the future of our country ? 
Thoughts on this most interesting subject have 
now and then been incidentally thrown out in 
the preceding chapters, but it may here be in- 
structive and cheering to revert to these, and 
again glance at them in combination with 
other thoughts of similar character, all tend- 
ing to throw light over the prospects of our 
beloved country. 

We confidently anticipate, on moral grounds, 
such a bright future of power, prosperity, and 
happiness, in comparison with which all our 
past progress, wonderful and unparalleled as 
this has been, shall be as nothing, and such a 
continually-enlarging influence for good toward 
all nations of the earth as no country was ever 
yet privileged to exercise. But it behooves each 
one of us to consider that all may not be sun- 
shine yet before us. The history of the world 
has abundantly taught us that great good ever 



208 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

comes through great suffering somewhere. 
Through what painful strifes, aye, bloody strug- 
gles, we may have yet to pass we know not. 
" Woe unto the world because of offenses ! for 
it must be that offenses come ; but woe to that 
man by whom the offense cometh." (Matt, 
xviii : 7.) The exceeding folly and wickedness 
of some may again involve us in the hor- 
rors of war. Still, we can not doubt the ulti- 
mate future of our beloved country ; that it will, 
under the wonderful workings of a good Prov- 
idence, be surpassingly glorious. And this we 
assuredly believe, because, 

1. We have an open Bible and a free Chris- 
tianity among us, as God sent these down 
from heaven to bless and save the world. 

In how many lands professedly Christian is 
the Bible a prohibited book; its light is care- 
fully concealed, lest the people should see it, 
and come to it, and drink in its inspiration 
for freedom and progress in every thing that 
is elevating and good. But this Bible, felt to 
be so dangerous by a false Christianity, su- 
perstition, and despotism, we have each one 
of us in his hands, and no one dare, hinder 
us from faithfully improving its instructions 
to our highest advantages for time and eter- 
nity. Its blessed influences in this way, all 



VIEWS OF OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE. 209 

over our free land, can not be estimated. But, 
further : 

We have also a free Christianity, just as it 
came down from heaven. Among every Euro- 
pean people there is an established Church, 
and that necessarily so modified as to adapt it 
to purposes of State. But all these modifica- 
tions, if closely examined in the pure light of 
the Scriptures, will be found to be so many cor- 
ruptions of Christianity, which hinder its best 
influences, while they continually tend to blind 
and oppress the great mass of the people. 
Such ecclesiastical establishments hold out daz- 
zling rewards to the ambitious, throw obsta- 
cles in the way of all true spiritual religion, 
and so cunningly raise up interested, zealous 
partisans of the Church, but make, for the 
most part, very poor Christians. Hence, were it 
not for the salutary operation of an active and 
growing dissent, such establishments would ex- 
tend the reign of darkness and a crushing des- 
potism over the whole land. Jlence, when 
Wesley and WTiitfield, and their coadjutors, 
commenced their faithful endeavors to revive 
and spread a pure Christianity in their native 
land, they could scarcely have experienced more 
bitter persecution in heathen countries than 
was exercised upon them by ministers and mem- 
14 



210 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

bers of the Established Church. And yet this 
establishment was one of the best then existing 
in Christendom. 

The wealth, the power, the pride, the worldly 
grandeur of an established religion are sure 
fearfully to paralyze it for good, and render it 
a most politic and potent instrument of popu- 
lar degradation and oppression. 

But we, in this free, happy land, are privi- 
leged with an open Bible and a free Chris- 
tianity; and these have mainly made us what 
we are, a free, intelligent, enterprising, grow- 
ing people, yesterday but a handful and poor, 
and now taking our place among the richest 
and strongest nations of the earth. Yes, these 
possessions, an open Bible and a free Chris- 
tianity, have made us what we are, a truly 
Protestant people, favored above all others. 
And who can describe the blessings yet in store 
for such a people ? But consider again : 

2. The people are sovereign in the United 
States. In other lands sovereignty dwells in 
one particular spot, or in one man, or in a 
small select body. Paris was, and perhaps is 
yet, France, the real sovereign of the -country. 
As Paris went, all went; if Paris was captured, 
all was gone — the whole country subdued. In 
Prussia, a purely military monarchy, the king 



VIEWS OF OUR COUNTRY'S FUTURE. 211 

is every thing. His sovereign will rules, how- 
ever the people may disapprove and murmur. 
Their condition and destiny are in his hands. 
He can bring the nation to power and pros- 
perity or ruin it, as he pleases. 

But among us the people are the only sov- 
ereign. They rule ; their will must ultimately 
prevail, and constitute the supreme law of the 
land. 

Here, then, we see, not the power and wis- 
dom of one man or of a select few, but the 
vast, accumulated intelligence, capacity, influ- 
ence, wealth, virtue, and energy of the whole 
people, some thirty or forty millions now, all 
thinking, feeling, acting for the good of their 
country. It is their possession, their home ; its 
present is theirs, its future is theirs — their honor, 
their power to bless and be blessed. Who can 
measure the light and the strength of such a 
sovereignty ? It is foolish to compare these 
with the wisdom and the pewer of one man or 
a select few. Hence, all the despotisms, the 
thrones, and aristocracies of the Old "World 
stood aghast at the demonstrations of popular 
sovereignty in crushing out our late rebellion. 
They feared us much before ; but never till 
then had they any adequate conception of the 
might of popular sovereignty. What miracles 



212 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 

of greatness and grandeur must, under God's 
providence, characterize the future of such 
a people ! 

3. The history of the last few years has 
made us acquainted with ourselves, as well as 
it has taught the other nations of the earth 
what we are. 

No one among us ever dreamed, even in his 
most sanguine moments, how strong was the 
Union feeling, how vast the resources, how 
tremendous the energies of a free people, our 
truly democratic sovereign. We never can 
forget what our country did when the hour of 
trial came, and we have taught all other nations 
what popular sovereignty, a free people and free 
institutions, can accomplish. No longer is it 
hidden from the world what a glorious future 
is before our country. And this example of a 
truly Christian republic will arouse all other 
people, and put them upon fresh endeavors to 
break their bonds and enter upon the same 
glorious career. 

We can mention here only one other thought 
shedding light upon our future : 

4. God, in his infinite wisdom and goodness, 
has seen fit to make us the world's chief de- 
positor} 7 of free institutions. 

What an honor ! How responsible the trust ! 



vraws OF our country's future. 213 

Such a position can not but be most exciting 
and invigorating. It must stir us up to works 
of peace, and to achievements of war (when 
manifestly called of God to the awful duty), 
such as the world's past history has never yet 
recorded. Such a position will also tend more 
and more to call the attention of all other 
people to us, and fix their gaze upon this 
model democracy. If faithful to our high 
trust, our example will be full of instruction 
and freighted with richest blessings to all other 
nations of the earth. 

Notwithstanding, therefore, there is yet so 
much of evil among us — such moral and po- 
litical ignorance, such partisan blindness and 
bitterness, such servility and infatuated cling- 
ing to miserable expediencies, such atheistic 
hate of true liberty — true only because Chris- 
tian liberty — notwithstanding all these evils 
existing among us, and throwing every possible 
obstacle in our way, still our path, under God's 
blessing, will be ever onward and upward. As 
the lion shakes the dew-drops from his mane, 
so a sovereign people, in their might and their 
majesty, will shake off the influence of bad 
men and bad measures that would hinder the 
advance of free institutions. The stately step- 
pings of our heaven-blessed Republic, the grand 



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214 ETHICS FOR THE TIMES. 



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depository of the world's rights and destiny, 
will be increasingly understood, admired, and 
imitated by all people, till the rapturous shout 
of universal liberty comes up from every vale 
and is heard from every mountain-top. Greater 
is He that is for us, than all they which be 
against us. 



"IN GOD WE TRUST.' 



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